Virginia

Governor Glenn Youngkin on Monday night finished acting on the more than 1,000 bills passed by Virginia lawmakers during the 2024 legislative session, signing nearly 800 bills into law. In total, Youngkin signed 777 bills into law. The governor made amendments to an additional 116 bills, sending them back to lawmakers for further review, and vetoed 153.

A March poll of Virginia Republicans found Lt. Governor Winsome Sears is the current favorite candidate to succeed Governor Glenn Youngkin in 2025, with Attorney General Jason Miyares currently behind by more than 25 points. The Cyngal pollsters claim Sears "holds an impressive 28-point advantages over Miyares on the governor's ballot," with 43.5 percent of support from Republicans. While Miyares had a distant 15.8 percent of support, a decisive 40.7 percent of those polled said they remain undecided.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares celebrated a victory on Friday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) halted the enforcement of its new climate changes rules for publicly traded businesses that were imposed by the Biden administration. The coalition of 25 attorneys general originally sued the Biden administration to block SEC rule changes that require publicly listed businesses report what the government considers climate change risks. A press release from the attorney general notes companies would be forced to "release a plan to adapt to climate agenda recommendations" under the proposed rules.

Though lawmakers applied pressure to the governor this week by publicly calling on him to act, companion bills creating a Prescription Drug Affordability Board for Virginia were conspicuously missing from the list of 150 bills he signed on Thursday evening. The Senate bill, introduced by veteran Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, is meant to reduce the price of expensive medications for Virginians. SB 274 would authorize an appointed board to restrict what the state and other payers pay manufacturers for certain drug products in the commonwealth. Those medications are then sold to wholesale distributors, government purchasers, or pharmacy benefit managers, next to pharmacies, and finally, to the consumer.

Governor Glenn Youngkin has just days to act on a bill that would legalize controversial skill games, which are often compared to slot machines, before lawmakers return to Richmond on April 17. Lawmakers last month approved the legislation to authorize and tax skill games machines throughout the commonwealth, which proponents ague are distinct from gambling because the outcome is partially determined by a player's skill. Critics argue they are functionally the same as slot machines.

Virginia agricultural producers may stand to receive more funding from the Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program, as the organization announced another $1.5 billion is available for eligible conservation and climate projects throughout the country. The program looks to help producers implement “climate-smart agriculture,” or farming practices that replenish natural resources and minimize climate change. This latest tranche of funding comes from the Farm Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, which the Biden administration has dubbed the “largest climate investment in history.”

Governor Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday announced a veto of legislation that would have mandated "environmental literacy" education across the commonwealth's schools. The governor vetoed HB 1088, which would have mandated the Virginia Board of Education to create or purchase "instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy that are based on and include peer-reviewed scientific sources."

Governor Glenn Youngkin was accused of using his veto power to "punish" Democratic lawmakers who contributed to the defeat of his plans to build an arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals in Alexandria, Virginia. After Youngkin vetoed Democratic-led bills to enact a $15 per hour minimum wage and regulate the legal sale of marijuana in the commonwealth, Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) suggested the governor is using his veto to punish his political opponents but conceded to 13 News Now, "Nothing that [Youngkin] did was unexpected."

Governor Glenn Youngkin on Friday vetoed bills to regulate marijuana and raise the minimum wage, which were positioned by Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly as possible bargaining chips in negotiations to build an arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals in Alexandria, Virginia. The arena project was officially pronounced dead last week, when Monumental Sports and Entertainment announced a deal with Washington, D.C. to stay in the nation's capitol for decades on Wednesday.

Representative Bob Good (R-VA-05) stated on Saturday that voters in his congressional district "could care less" about a recent endorsement received by his primary challenger, State Senator John McGuire (R-Goochland), framing his opponent's supporters as "establishment moderates." Good told cable news outlet CNN he was unfazed by the recent endorsement of McGuire by Representative Derrick Van Orden (R-WI-03), who recently endorsed the Republican's primary challenger.

 Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed bills Thursday that would have raised Virginia’s minimum wage to $13.50 per hour in 2025 and $15 in 2026. The companion bills were among the first to be prefiled by General Assembly Democrats, indicating their status as high-priority legislation.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday vetoed legislation that would have created a state-regulated market for recreational marijuana sales. The Old Dominion currently permits qualified patients to secure marijuana for medical purposes and in 2021 legalized its use and cultivation by residents aged 21 and older, though it has not yet approved a framework for legal retail sales, according to The Hill. The measure would have set up the process to permit the market to open in May of 2025 and set up a maximum tax rate of 11.625%, the Associated Press reported.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Wednesday blamed the Biden administration for "refusing to fix" the illegal immigration crisis after two illegal immigrants were arrested for sex crimes against children in the commonwealth. The attorney general made remarks about the illegal immigration crisis following the arrest of Isauro Garcia Cruz and Renzo Mendoza Montes, who are both illegal immigrants accused of crimes against children.

Virginia is beginning to experience some of the impacts from the cargo ship crash that brought down Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, closing a vital shipping lane leading to one of the eastern seaboard’s busiest ports. Shortly after on Thursday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin offered to assist neighboring Maryland. Within hours, the commonwealth’s ports were already preparing to absorb some of the diverted shipping traffic.

Wildlife conservationists say that a recent uptick in deaths of these endangered whales corresponds with the development of offshore wind projects that are part of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda. A coalition of conservative groups has filed a lawsuit against federal agencies and their top officials and the company planning to build what is expected to be the world's largest offshore wind project.