I talked to Nick Ianelli from WTOP about the redistricting special session. Listen to the conversation up there 👆🏻.
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The latest on redistricting
State-level Democrats have not publicly confirmed whether they will take up redistricting during Monday’s special session, but national party leaders have signaled it will be the focus.
“We are clear-eyed that Democrats cannot unilaterally disarm across the country and must pursue every available tool to counter Republicans’ desperate attempts to steal the midterms,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) communications director Courtney Rice. “Virginia’s decision to convene and preserve the right to consider a new map in 2026 is critical in the fight to ensure voters have fair representation and we commend them for standing up against Republican attempts to weaken the power, and vote, of the people.”
Multiple sources told Virginia Scope that national figures are pushing the redistricting effort behind the scenes.
On Wednesday, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee gave $150,000 to Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger and another $150,000 to the Virginia House Democratic Caucus.
Spanberger, who appears to have not been involved in these special session plans, has not commented on the redistricting effort. Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the $150,000 donation Friday.
A spokesperson for the House Democratic Caucus did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has not responded to multiple phone calls.
Virginia House Republican Leader Terry Kilgore said in a press conference Thursday evening that a reliable source told him redistricting will be on the agenda when legislators meet on Monday.
The only statement on the record from Democrats since the official message went out for the special session meeting has been from Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax.
“We are coming back to address actions by the Trump Administration,” Surovell said.
What is happening:
* Here is a full refresher on how the constitutional amendment process works—but for now, I am going to focus on parts I haven’t discussed much.
* Legislation must be read on the Senate chamber floor three times before it can be advanced out of the chamber. It appears that it only has to be read twice on the House floor. Both chambers must pass the same bill, so we are potentially looking at a minimum of 5 days of meetings.
* Typically, both chambers can vote to skip some of those readings to speed up the process, but a super-majority is required to skip a daily reading.
* Republican sources tell me that they will not agree to that.
* Republicans say they are expecting to spend those five days talking about Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones during floor speeches.
* I have also heard from some Democrats that they are moving so quickly on this now to leave their options open down the road. The fact that a House election must occur between two General Assembly votes on amendments means this is a do-or-die moment. Democrats either meet now and approve some change to the redistricting method, or they lose that opportunity for two more years. Approving the change now keeps their options open next year.
* One interesting theory is that, due to the realization that a referendum vote does not have to wait for the general election, Democrats could potentially bring the abortion, restoration of rights, and repeal of same-sex marriage ban constitutional amendments to a vote on the same day as a potential redistricting amendment. (I have not heard any discussion of this happening, just presenting an interesting thought.)
* Attorney General Jason Miyares responded with a statement Thursday. “Virginia voters should pick their elected officials, not politicians picking their voters,” Miyares wrote. “I voted for the Nonpartisan Redistricting Commission and broke ranks with my own party on non-partisan redistricting, to the point where I was removed from House Privileges & Elections Committee for taking a stand. Keeping politicians out of the process was the right thing to do then, and I strongly believe it is the right thing to do now.”
* Gov. Glenn Youngkin also released a statement Thursday night. “Two thirds of Virginians spoke loud and clear when they codified nonpartisan redistricting into our state Constitution five years ago,” Youngkin wrote. “12 days before our statewide elections, this is a shameless, reprehensible political power grab by Democrat lawmakers desperate for anything to distract from the disastrous Democrat Shutdown and Jay Jones’ demented comments and criminal investigation.”
* Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is also the Republican nominee for governor, attacked her Democratic opponent multiple times over the special session.
* “This is what panic looks like,” said Earle-Sears spokesperson Peyton Vogel. “With just 12 days until Election Day, Abigail Spanberger and her Democrat allies have given up on talking to voters about real ideas and solutions. Instead, she’s leading the charge on cheap political stunts to slow down Winsome Earle-Sears’ momentum.”
* Vogel continued with a second statement later on Thursday. “For years, Abigail Spanberger kowtowed to the Washington insiders, and now it’s clear she’ll do the same for the Richmond political class.”
* Spanberger, Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Ghazala Hashmi, and Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones have not responded to requests for comment.
* Spanberger and Jones can continue to campaign, but Hashmi is a state senator and Democrats need every single vote for this effort to work — so she will be pulled off the trail.
* Hashmi’s opponent, John Reid, commented on the special session Thursday. “Virginians made it clear they didn’t want gerrymandering years ago,” he wrote. “Now… just before a huge statewide election the Democrats wanna come back to the Capitol and start undoing the plan that was in place? How much more obnoxious and arrogant can these people be?”
* Earle-Sears and Hashmi will be impacted the most out of the six statewide nominees. But Hashmi’s vote is necessary and Earle-Sears’ presence is not required.
* The Senate Pro Tempore (Louise Lucas) can oversee the chamber in the lieutenant governor’s absence.
* Other than overseeing the Senate, the only other official job of the lieutenant governor is to cast tie-breaking votes on legislation.
* It is unclear if the LG could even do that on constitutional amendments, however.
* Amendment resolutions are different than regular legislation. The Executive Branch is not involved in any official way.
* Former two-term Republican lieutenant governor Bill Bolling released an opinion in 2012 saying he “cannot vote on final passage of bills such as the budget, tax bills, constitutional amendments, the election of judges and the creation of new offices.”
* A source close to Earle-Sears told Virginia Scope that the LG will be in Richmond for the session because she feels it is her responsibility in the job she was elected to do.
* She has set up a press conference at the Capitol to take place an hour before legislators are slated to gavel into session.
This will continue to be a developing story.
A Pro-Dominion Grassroots Group Has Financial Ties—to Dominion - Inside Climate News
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.
By Charles Paullin
CHESTER, Va.—A crowd packed a meeting room at the SpringHill Suites here in September for a public hearing on an air permit for a controversial “peaker” plant that Dominion Energy has long been lobbying to build to enhance grid reliability.
Brent Archer, former president of Columbia Gas of Virginia, stood at the podium and told officials of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality that he strongly supported the project.
“The dispatchable energy represented by this plant is essential for balancing demand with available supply on the electric grid in partnership with renewable energy,” Archer said, with dozens of other supporters at his back.
He went on: “I am here today representing the Virginia Energy Reliability Alliance, or VERA. VERA is an organization that was formed to support programmatic, balanced policy that supports all forms of energy generation to meet Virginia’s growing energy needs. And I think we have a lot of supporters this evening if you could stand for a minute so we can see. Thank you.”
About a dozen people stood up around the room, most of them wearing stickers that said “I support reliable energy” and “Energy you can count on.”
What Archer didn’t say was that the Virginia Energy Reliability Alliance is funded by Dominion.
In an interview later, Archer said he was speaking as a volunteer and saw no need “to disclose anything that had to do with whatever Dominion’s relationship with VERA may be.” He said he assumed everyone else supporting him was there as a volunteer as well.
Several weeks later, one of Archer’s supporters wearing the stickers turned up in downtown Richmond in the lobby at 1021 E. Cary Street, an office tower populated by lobbyists and consulting firms within walking distance of the Virginia Capitol.
He declined to say who he was or whom he worked for, but he told Inside Climate News: “I’m not at liberty to talk to the media. I work for a consulting company that works with Dominion.”
Jeremy Slayton, a Dominion spokesperson, said in an email prior to the exchange that the utility’s involvement with the Virginia Energy Reliability Alliance “is transparently explained on the VERA website.”
Through the first half of 2025, he said, Dominion contributed $290,208 to another nonprofit called Power for Tomorrow, an advocacy group that works in favor of monopoly utility control as a means of power efficiency and reliability, which in turn supports the Virginia Energy Reliability Alliance. Power for Tomorrow has ties with Dominion dating back to May 2021, according to the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog group.
Aaron Ruby, another Dominion spokesperson, told Inside Climate News that those people at the hearing supporting Archer and wearing the stickers were not there at Dominion’s behest. “They are not paid, and their support is real,” Ruby said. “We have been transparent about VERA and their efforts to mobilize public support, including handing out stickers. … Thousands of everyday Virginians and more than 100 Virginia businesses and organizations have spoken out in support” of the proposed plant.
Dominion’s financial sponsorship of nonprofits that publicly support its projects is a practice used by utilities across the country. In Alabama, Alabama Power’s corporate offices gave space and paid millions in fees to the Hawthorn Group, a firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. Hawthorn, which describes itself as an international public affairs company, has admitted to hiring a subcontractor, Crowds on Demand, that paid actors to speak at New Orleans City Council meetings in 2017 on behalf of a natural gas plant proposed by another utility, Entergy.
The proposed peaker plant in Chesterfield County, called the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center, would run when electricity demand is high, rather than round-the-clock. A U.S. Government Accountability Office report in 2024 found that such peaker plants produce more pollution per energy generated than the baseload plants that run regularly, and they’re more likely to be located in communities of color.
The Chesterfield plant has generated significant opposition in the majority Black community whose residents live in close proximity to the site of an old coal plant where the new natural gas facility would be built.
While Richmond-area Democrats have, for the most part, supported community members in opposing the peaker plant, Del. Destiny LeVere Bolling, a Richmond Democrat, recently came out in support of the facility.
Bolling said at a second DEQ public hearing on the air quality permit earlier this month that the project is needed, even though it could make achieving emissions reductions more difficult under the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
“I wholeheartedly support the Virginia Clean Economy Act and its stated policy goals, but as elected and appointed we also have an obligation to ensure Virginians have the energy they need in both the near term and the long term,” said Bolling, who is running an uncontested House of Delegates reelection campaign in Henrico County, a heavily Democratic suburb of the state’s capital city.
“We cannot ignore facts,” Bolling continued. “The data is clear: Without additional peaking capacity Virginia runs a real risk of not meeting demand when it matters the most.”
Prior to her testimony, Bolling’s top donor had been Dominion, which contributed $110,000 between 2023 and August 2025. The day after she spoke, Dominion gave her another $50,000.
Bolling said her testimony and Dominion donations were unrelated. “I’ve actually voted on several bills that they don’t quite like, but that’s the beauty of being on [the Labor and Commerce Committee] and hearing all the energy conversation behind the scenes.”
Dominion, too, said the two were unrelated. “Dominion Energy does not ask the recipients of our campaign contributions for favors,” Slayton said. “That would be unethical, if not illegal.”
Shortly after the VERA supporter at 1021 E. Cary Street declined to give his name, Del. Jason Ballard, a Pearisburg Republican, appeared in the building’s lobby with two men, one of whom had also stood with the VERA supporters back at the air permit hearing in September. They went out on the street and appeared to be recording an audio interview.
Ballard is also a recipient of a Dominion campaign contribution, receiving a $25,000 donation from the utility on the same day as the second air permit hearing earlier this month, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. The utility is Ballard’s fourth-biggest donor at $122,500, records compiled by the access project show.
Asked about the men he had been talking with and whether their interaction had anything to do with the peaker plant in Chesterfield County, Ballard said: “Dominion’s not in my territory, you know that.”
Slayton, the Dominion spokesman, said the utility’s contributions to lawmakers had been made without any expected action in return. “We don’t exchange campaign contributions for political favors,” Slayton said. “Like most companies, we contribute to candidates from both parties who support commonsense public policy.”
