Virginia House Democrats advance four constitutional amendments

The Virginia House of Delegates advanced four constitutional amendments dealing with abortion rights, gay marriage, voting rights, and redistricting.

On the first day of the 2026 Virginia General Assembly session, the House of Delegates advanced four constitutional amendments, including one to let state lawmakers redraw Virginia’s congressional map. 

The other three amendments deal with reproductive rights, gay marriage, and voting rights.  All four amendments have already passed out of the General Assembly once and need to pass a second time before heading to voters for final approval. 

The redistricting amendment would let Virginia lawmakers pursue mid-cycle redistricting in response to Republican gerrymandering across the country. Under pressure from President Donald Trump, Republicans in Texas, North Carolina, and other states redrew their congressional maps last year in order to tilt them in favor of GOP candidates ahead of this year’s midterm elections. 

Virginia Democrats argued that Trump and Republicans forced their hand and that ultimately it would be up to Virginia voters to decide whether to maintain the status quo or allow Virginia to fight back by redrawing the state’s congressional maps to offset Republican gains in other states. 

Virginia constitutional amendments must be approved by voters and there would likely be a special election in the spring to vote on the amendments if the Virginia Senate passes them later this week.  

Citing the impacts of Trump and Republican cuts to the social safety net, Virginia Del. Cia Price (D-Newport News) said that Virginia  ”cannot afford to let the system continue to be rigged.”

“We will let the voters decide whether they want to live in a dysfunctional, new normal of a rigged system or fight back,” Price said at a morning press conference about the redistricting amendment. 

Democrats emphasized that, if approved by voters, the constitutional amendment on redistricting was a temporary measure and would not replace the work of Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting commission in the future.  

The reproductive rights constitutional amendment would enshrine abortion rights in Virginia’s constitution. The same-sex marriage amendment would remove the gay marriage ban still in Virginia’s constitution, and the voting rights amendment would create a consistent process by which people who have served their time for felony convictions can have their voting rights restored. 

“ We’re not going to stand aside and watch them decimate the game while we do nothing to level the playing field,” said Democratic House Speaker Don Scott. “We have to do everything in our power at this moment to level the playing field.”