RICHMOND, Va.—Democrats gained trifecta control of Virginia state government Tuesday night as former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger trounced Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by 15 points in the governor’s race and the party flipped a whopping 13 seats in the House of Delegates.
The party’s lead in the legislature’s lower chamber will move from a narrow 51-48 margin to 64-36. Its current 21-19 majority in the Senate will hold until the next election in 2027, meaning that Democrats will have a virtually unfettered opportunity for two years to protect the state’s ambitious climate law, the Virginia Clean Economy Act, and more aggressively pursue the transition to renewable energy.
“Things are going to move fast,” said Lee Francis, chief program and communications officer of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, recalling the 2020 and 2021 legislative sessions, when Democrats last had trifecta…
