Newly minted Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger campaigned as a pragmatic centrist, while critics said her day-one actions depict a very different four years the Old Dominion is about to experience.
In a flurry of executive orders after her inauguration, the Democrat rescinded ex-Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 287(g) order that instituted cooperation with ICE, and seized on broad affordability initiatives including housing regulation reviews that align with progressive approaches to zoning.
Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Cumberland Gap, saw his razor-thin 2025 minority get slashed to 36-64 after November’s wave election that Spanberger also won.
When asked about one of Spanberger’s key executive orders, establishing a "process for housing affordability," and how critics warned what that may mean for intervention in local zoning matters, Kilgore said that when it comes down to it, "government’s not always the answer."
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"What you have to do is allow the free market to go in and build the houses and get a rate of return. But a lot of bills that we're passing here now; a landlord-tenant [bill] would keep folks if they're not paying their rent [have] longer to come up with their rent, gives them all kinds of options there," Kilgore said.
"When folks are investing money and they are losing money because they can't get folks out because they're not paying their rent, they're not going to invest in the Commonwealth."
He criticized how Spanberger’s orders often created commissions or panels, remarking, "Virginia needs affordability now; that’s what was campaigned on."
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"We're willing as a Republican caucus to [step] up right now. There are things we can do to make Virginia more affordable... We don't need a study. Let's work on it right now and address what we can."
Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger for comment on whether her executive order would potentially lead to overriding local zoning policies – and for more clarity on her definition of "affordable" in terms of housing, and on her 287(g) rescission.
Spanberger’s order said she would "support, encourage, coordinate, and innovate using the fullest powers of state government in partnership with local governments and the nonprofit and private sectors to create practical solutions that meet the housing needs of Virginians."
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Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, told Fox News Digital that the flurry of orders, including the housing affordability one, is "exactly what we said would happen."
"Governor Spanberger campaigned as a centrist pragmatist, but she was a progressive in moderate’s clothing from the start."
"Her ‘affordable housing’ order raises serious questions about whether this administration will override local zoning authority across the Commonwealth. Virginians were sold a facade of practical solutions to make the Commonwealth affordable—instead, they’re getting Zohran Mamdani-style collectivism dressed up as housing policy."
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Another top concern for Virginia Republicans is a push by Spanberger and Senate Leader L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, to redraw the state’s congressional map in a way that would leave only one GOP-held seat — represented by Rep. Morgan Griffith — in an otherwise purple state.
"The Democrats are pursuing redrawing our lines in the Commonwealth of Virginia to basically ‘Fairfax’ the rest of Virginia. That's what I'm calling it because all the lines that are being drawn across the Commonwealth to make it a 10-1 Democrat majority in Virginia."
He said the lines proposed by Democrats don’t connect "communities-of-interest," remarking that Washington suburbs have little in common with the Shenandoah Valley and so forth.
"[Democrats] say it's because there's a threat to democracy. I don't know what the threat to democracy is or who's threatening anybody over democracy. So it's just a power grab," he quipped.
Republicans also suggested the leftward pivot is two-front, as Kilgore’s office shared a slew of what they dubbed the "bad bills" that the new legislature has already crafted for Spanberger.
Several create new sales taxes, including 4.3% on Amazon and food-delivery services, 3.8% additional investment tax on top of the state income tax, which critics said would unnecessarily harm low-and-mid-tier investors, and a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.
Another so-called "bad bill" would extend the absentee ballot acceptance period, prohibit hand-counting of ballots, allow internet-based voting, lower robbery penalties, and enact several Second Amendment-related taxes.
Kilgore said housing affordability also includes energy costs, adding Spanberger indicated she would reenter Virginia into RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. He noted another Democrat-led energy-industry state – Pennsylvania – just took itself out of the pact.
However, Kilgore also agreed with observers who warn that Spanberger and Richmond Democrats’ swift pivot from the Youngkin years may lead to voter backlash in the midterms.
Sen. Mark Warner, a former Democratic governor himself, is up for reelection, as are every congressman, delegate and state senator.
"Virginia is not a liberal state. A lot of folks think, ‘Oh, [Democrats] got their trifecta now’, but … we're a moderate state," Kilgore said.
"We are already looking at these bills – the pendulum swings back. I've been in politics a long time, and I've seen the pendulum go back and forth in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I'm sure that we'll be back."
Fox News Digital's Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.
