This story was reported and written by VPM News.
The whole of Virginia's General Assembly has approved four constitutional amendments — on abortion and reproductive health care, the automatic restoration of voting rights, marriage equality and mid-decade redistricting — after the state Senate's Friday vote.
With the draft amendments passing both chambers in consecutive years, with a House of Delegates election in the middle, Virginia voters will now have the last say in a multi-year process on whether to enshrine in the constitution:
- A fundamental right to reproductive care, including access to abortion, contraception and fertility treatments
- automatic restoration of voting and other political rights to people who have completed felony sentences, instead of requiring the governor to sign off on individuals rights (a process that only Virginia carries out)
- protections for marriage equality, replacing a 20-year-old ban on same-sex marriage that has not been enforced for over a decade
- the ability for Virginia lawmakers to bypass the state's current redistricting practice — where a bipartisan independent commission redraws maps after a decennial census — if other states gerrymander in mid-decade
Voting on three of the amendments — abortion, automatic voting rights restoration and marriage equality — is planned to take place during the November 2026 general election, but Democrats are aiming for an April special ballot referendum on mid-decade redistricting, so voting in the 2026 congressional midterms can use new maps favorable to their party.
The General Assembly can set the referenda dates through legislation.
In the Senate, votes on all amendments but removing the marriage prohibitions were along party lines. Republican Sens. Bill DeSteph (Virginia Beach), Danny Diggs (York), Tara Durant (Fredericksburg) and David Suetterlein (Roanoke) voted to approve the marriage equality amendment for voters' consideration.
In the House of Delegates, GOP Dels. Rob Bloxsom (Accomack), Joe McNamara (Roanoke County) and Tom Garrett (Appomattox) crossed party lines to support the marriage equality amendment. Republican Del. Mike Cherry (Colonial Heights) voted in support of the rights restoration amendment.
The passage concludes legislative debates that have been repeated for varying periods of time.
Legislators voted in 2021 to recommend removing the 2006 state constitutional ban on gay marriage (which has not been enforced since the 2015 US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges), and also another amendment on rights restoration. But they weren't able to pass the amendments again in 2022, when a Republican-controlled House blocked the amendments.
Debate over mid-decade redistricting has been much more condensed. Virginia Democrats only introduced the draft in October after Republican President Donald Trump set off a string of partisan gerrymandering nationwide when he pressured Texas lawmakers to give Republicans an edge in that state's congressional districts.
On Wednesday, Del. Cia Price (D–Newport News) and state Sen. Aaron Rouse (D–Virginia Beach), chairs of the General Assembly's privileges and elections committees, told reporters that voters would see plans for redrawn districts by Jan. 30 before deciding on whether to vote for the new maps.
Read more about the amendments:
- Virginia House committee advances 4 proposed constitutional amendments
- Virginia Senate votes to propose redistricting amendment
- House of Delegates passes redistricting amendment
- Virginia delegates file 2026 redistricting amendment draft
- General Assembly starts hashing out redistricting amendment for 2026
- Virginia moves to join redistricting trend
- Virginia Senate pushes forward constitutional amendments
- House of Delegates committee advances 3 constitutional amendments
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