In a matter of hours we should know whether a majority of Virginia voters backed Democrats’ push to temporarily tilt the state’s congressional map in their party’s favor; or if voters preferred to keep Virginia on the sidelines of the national redistricting clash kicked off last year by President Donald Trump.

State Navigate, a polling and analysis nonprofit, put the odds of the referendum passing at 83%.

Below, I share the latest on the disagreement between Gov. Abigail Spanberger and labor unions over expanding collective bargaining rights in the state.

And I share some of what I heard talking to voters earlier today.

Want to get in touch, or have stories you want me to cover? Reply to this email or reach out to me directly at michaeloconnor@couriernewsroom.com.

Michael O’Connor

Reporter, Dogwood

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger delivers her State of the Commonwealth address before a joint session of the Virignia General Assembly at the Capitol Monday Jan. 19, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Things are not looking great for the immediate future of the collective bargaining rights legislation ahead of tomorrow’s veto session.

I learned yesterday that the Spanberger administration asked to meet with the labor unions critical of the governor’s proposed changes to the bill. I’m not exactly sure who was in the meeting, which took place on Monday, but I’m told members of Spanberger’s cabinet were there.

Regardless of what was said, it did not do anything to change the position of the coalition of unions at the meeting: they went in opposing Spanberger’s changes to the legislation and they came out of the meeting still urging state lawmakers to reject them.

It’s worth pausing here to consider how differently the two sides are talking about what Spanberger is proposing.

Spanberger told reporters last week that her changes are “vital” to an expansion of collective bargaining rights “that needs to be done methodically and purposefully.”

Compare that with the spokesperson for the Virginia Public Sector Labor Coalition, Katie Baker, saying Spanberger’s version of the bill would weaken the ability of workers to meaningfully negotiate their contracts.

“ I cannot overstate that the changes to this bill amount to a substantial rewrite,” Baker said during a virtual press conference on Friday.

The unions (with the exception of the Virginia AFL-CIO) backed Spanberger as a candidate and she’s been public about her general support for workers’ rights.

As a candidate, Spanberger shot a video released in October showing her spending time with SEIU Virginia 512 home care worker Elisha Woods and her client, Ethan. In the video, Woods asks Spanberger if she supports collective bargaining.

“The short answer is, ‘Yes,’” Spanberger replies.

It begs the question: how did the unions and Spanberger get so far apart on this issue? I don’t have the answer to that question—yet.

But I’ll be in Richmond tomorrow as lawmakers return to take up Spanberger’s legislative actions, and I’ll try to see what more I can learn.

Watch Kate Powell aka @kate_forthepeople share some thoughts on the collective bargaining bill with her 143K followers on Instagram. She made the post after I clarified some things about the bill.

Get the details of a Richmond rally planned for tomorrow to put pressure on state lawmakers to reject Spanberger’s changes to collective bargaining legislation.

Amazon failed to hit its annual job growth mark for its offices in Northern Virginia for the third year in a row, Kendall Staton at The Washington Post reports.

The voting area at Belle View Elementary School in Alexandria this morning. (Michael O’Connor/Dogwood)

I spent part of my morning today at Belle View Elementary School asking voters about their thoughts on today’s referendum.

Below is some of what I heard from two voters and a state delegate.

Sean Carlson, a 17-year-old high school student and Democrat, told me he was voting “No” because he worried about the country’s path down a redistricting rabbit hole. He thought it’d be more democratic to outlaw gerrymandering altogether.

He figured the first time he’d ever vote would be in a presidential election, but there he was on a chilly April afternoon about to vote on a statewide referendum on redistricting.

Next year, he’ll be off to college in Colorado where he plans to do ROTC. Given his plans to join the military, I asked what he made of the Iran war. Carlson said it was “pretty pointless.”

Later, I caught up with Chris Kesling, a systems engineer and anti-MAGA Republican. He proved something of a unicorn: a Republican who’s been opposed to Trump since he arrived on the national political scene.

“I feel like MAGA’s taken over my party and it sucks,” Kesling told me.

Kesling planned to vote whichever way would hurt Trump more, which he hoped the volunteers greeting voters would explain to him.

Finally, state Del. Paul Krizek (D-Alexandria) shared some comments with me about the referendum and some other items in the news. Watch some of what he told me here.

Krizek didn’t inspire much hope for ongoing state budget talks. Krizek, a budget conferee, said he was “a bit nervous” since the budget negotiators have not met enough.

Lawmakers are expected to gavel in on Thursday for a special session on the budget.

“We’re probably not going to get much accomplished on Thursday outside of maybe some more conferee meetings,” Krizek told me.