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2025 Virginia legislative session
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| 2025 Virginia legislative session |
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| General information |
| Scheduled session start: January 8, 2025 Scheduled session end: February 22, 2025 |
| Leadership |
| Senate President Winsome Earle-Sears (R) House Speaker |
| Elections |
| Next Election: November 4, 2025 Last Election: November 7, 2023 |
| Previous legislative sessions |
| 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 |
| Other 2025 legislative sessions |
In 2025, the Virginia General Assembly was scheduled to convene on January 8 and adjourn on February 22.
The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2023 elections. Democrats won a 21-19 majority in the Senate and a 51-49 majority in the House. The Republican Party controlled the governorship, creating a divided state government. At the start of the 2025 session, Virginia was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.
Leadership in 2025
Virginia State Senate
- Senate president: Winsome Earle-Sears (R)
- Majority leader: Scott Surovell (D)
- Minority leader: Ryan McDougle (R)
Virginia House of Delegates
- Speaker of the House: Don Scott (D)
- Majority leader: Charniele Herring (D)
- Minority leader: C. Todd Gilbert (R)
Partisan control in 2025
- See also: State government trifectas
Virginia was one of 12 divided state governments at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.
Virginia was also one of X state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.
The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Virginia General Assembly in the 2025 legislative session.
Virginia State Senate
| Party | As of January 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 21 | |
| Republican Party | 19 | |
| Total | 40 | |
Virginia House of Delegates
| Party | As of January 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Democratic Party | 51 | |
| Republican Party | 49 | |
| Total | 100 | |
Regular session
The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.
Legislation trackers
- See also: Legislation Trackers
Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:
Standing legislative committees
A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.
At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 28 standing committees in Virginia's state government, including 13 state Senate committees and 15 state House committees.
Senate committees
- Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee
- Commerce and Labor Committee
- Education and Health Committee
- Finance and Appropriations Committee
- General Laws and Technology Committee
- Judiciary Committee
- Local Government Committee
- Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee
- Senate Courts of Justice Committee
- Senate Finance Committee
- Senate Privileges and Elections Committee
- Senate Rules Committee
- Senate Transportation Committee
House committees
- Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee
- Appropriations Committee
- Communications, Technology and Innovation Committee
- Counties, Cities and Towns Committee
- Education Committee
- General Laws Committee
- Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee
- House Courts of Justice Committee
- House Finance Committee
- House Privileges and Elections Committee
- House Rules Committee
- House Transportation Committee
- Labor and Commerce Committee
- Public Safety Committee
- Science and Technology Committee
Legislatively referred constitutional amendments
In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.
The methods by which the Virginia Constitution can be amended:
The Virginia Constitution can be amended through two different paths—a legislative process, and a constitutional convention. Virginia does not feature the power of initiative for either initiated constitutional amendments or initiated state statutes.
Legislature
A simple majority vote is required during two successive legislative sessions for the Virginia General Assembly to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 51 votes in the Virginia House of Delegates and 21 votes in the Virginia State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.
Convention
Amendments to or revisions of the state's constitution can be proposed by a constitutional convention as established in Section 2 of Article XII. A convention can happen if the state's legislature "by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house" calls a convention.
Historical partisan control
The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Virginia.
Virginia Party Control: 1992-2025
Four years of Democratic trifectas • Four years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.
| Year | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governor | D | D | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | D | R | R | R | R |
| Senate | D | D | D | D | S | S | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | R | R | D | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| House | D | D | D | D | D | D | S | S | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | D | D | R | R | D | D |
Historical Senate control
Democrats won a 21-19 majority in the Virginia State Senate in 2019, gaining control of the chamber for the first time since 2007.
The table below shows the partisan history of the Virginia Senate following every general election from 1991 to 2023. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
Virginia State Senate election results: 1991-2023
| Party | 91 | 95[1] | 99 | 03 | 07 | 11[2] | 15 | 19 | 23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 22 | 20 | 19 | 16 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 21 | 21 |
| Republicans | 18 | 20 | 21 | 24 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 19 | 19 |
Historical House control
Democrats won a 51-49 majority in the Virginia House of Delegates in 2023, making it the third time in three election cycles that the chamber majority changed hands.
The table below shows the partisan history of the Virginia House following every general election from 1991 to 2023. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.
Virginia House of Delegates election results: 1991-2023
| Year | '91 | '93 | '95 | '97[3] | '99 | '01 | '03 | '05 | '07 | '09 | '11 | '13 | '15 | '17 | '19 | '21 | '23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrats | 58 | 52 | 52 | 50 | 47 | 31 | 37 | 39 | 44 | 39 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 49 | 55 | 48 | 51 |
| Republicans | 41 | 47 | 47 | 49 | 52 | 67 | 61 | 58 | 54 | 59 | 67 | 67 | 66 | 51 | 45 | 52 | 49 |
| Other | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Analysis
Adopted legislation, 2011-2024
- See also: The State Legislative Decade - Virginia
In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.
See also
| Elections | Virginia State Government | State Legislatures | State Politics |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Chamber governed by a power-sharing agreement.
- ↑ Control of the Senate varied between the 2011 and 2015 elections. Republicans controlled the chamber from 2012 through 2013, with a Republican lieutenant governor serving as a tie-breaking vote. Democrats won the lieutenant governorship in 2013, giving them control for the first half of 2014. One Democrat resigned in June 2014 and Republicans won the August 2014 special election, giving the party a 21-19 majority.
- ↑ Following the election, one Democrat resigned and Republicans won the subsequent special election. The one independent also caucused with Republicans, giving the chamber a 50-50 split, decided through a power-sharing agreement.
