Speaker Scott: Democrats plan to legislate with ‘restraint’ after decisive victory

Democrats in Virginia’s House of Delegates grew their majority by a margin not seen in nearly 40 years after Tuesday’s election. Regardless, the caucus leader, House Speaker Don Scott, vowed during a press conference Wednesday morning that the party would wield its legislative power “responsibly.”

The Democratic majority in the House of Delegates now stands at what Scott, of Portsmouth, called a “historic, unbelievable” 64 seats. Democratic candidates ran in all 100 House districts and picked up five districts that were won by President Donald Trump in 2024, he added. 

“This is what a mandate looks like,” Scott said. “We’re going to keep focused and we’re going to remain disciplined. The word of the day now is ‘restraint.’ We can’t overreach. We have to be restrained, we have to be wise with the gift that the voters have given us, to govern.”

He pointed out that voters are interested in kitchen-table issues and protecting democracy. 

“We’re going to listen to the voters — they already told us what our priorities should be,” Scott said. 

Those priorities include lowering the cost of housing, health care, making schools safe and protecting public safety, among others, he added. 

Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax County, chair of the campaigns committee in the House Democratic caucus, said the party approached the 2025 election like a military campaign. From recruiting and training candidates to collecting a “dragon’s hoard” of resources, the caucus was able to raise over $30 million, nearly tripling what was raised in 2021, he said. Republicans were outspent in the television and online ad space two to one in the final weeks of the campaign, he added. 

“We ran the biggest battleground campaign in modern history, the biggest field campaign in modern history,” Helmer said. 

Youngkin vows to support Spanberger as he prepares to leave office

Outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin congratulated Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger and vowed to support her as she builds her transition team and prepares to take office, during another press conference that took place earlier Wednesday. 

“We will support her in that process, so that she and her team can hit the ground running,” Youngkin said. “She will step into a Virginia that is stronger than it’s ever been.”

The governor-elect on Wednesday announced her transition team, which includes former Democratic Congressman Rick Boucher of Abingdon, who represented Virginia’s 9th Congressional District from 1983 to 2011, as an honorary co-chair.

Youngkin stopped short of calling the outcome of Tuesday’s election a referendum on the Trump administration, but he did say that the ongoing federal government shutdown was a “big, big challenge” that may have influenced voters in a state that has a large population of federal workers. 

Virginia’s off-year statewide elections are often considered a bellwether for how the midterm elections may go, as well as a referendum on the current presidential administration.

Youngkin said, when asked by a reporter, that he did not believe the outcome of the statewide election was a referendum on his own administration. 

“I believe that Virginians thoroughly support what we’ve been doing. I mean, at the end of the day when people say ‘Is the state heading in the right direction?’ people say ‘Yes,’” he said. 

Youngkin’s job approval rating hovered around 50% between August and October, according to a poll released by Roanoke College on Oct. 30. That same poll saw the governor’s disapproval rating decline by 7 percentage points. 

Spanberger, a former congresswoman, defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in a decisive 15-percentage-point victory. 

Term limits for Virginia’s executive office are bound by the commonwealth’s constitution: A governor may not serve two consecutive terms.