Virginia elections: 2025 #97

Ballots open doors—and this year in Virginia, they may also redraw the map of power. We break down exactly how to vote with confidence, then dive straight into the real stakes: a historic governor’s race, a hard look at abortion policy, and a charged fight over whether the Commonwealth’s bipartisan redistricting system can be sidelined in a special session. No fluff, no hedging—just a clear-eyed view of what your choice could change.

We walk through voting hours, ID requirements, and the simple rule that protects your voice if you’re in line by 7 p.m. From there, we contrast the candidates’ agendas and explain why policy outcomes matter more than headlines. The heart of the show centers on the redistricting push: how the commission came to be, why it won broad support, and what it would mean if lawmakers trigger earlier map redraws despite voter intent. With insights from Delegate Nick Freitas on floor procedure, germaneness, and power dynamics, we map the mechanics that often get lost behind slogans.

The conversation expands to principle: fair maps, civil process, and the long arc of Virginia’s civic identity. We speak plainly about life and women’s privacy, raise concerns about last-minute procedural maneuvers, and offer a resilient plan whether results thrill or sting—organize, vote, and keep the guardrails intact. If you care about election integrity, redistricting reform, and the future direction of the Commonwealth, this is your field guide for an election that reaches beyond one news cycle.

If this resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more candid breakdowns, and leave a review with your top issue this year—what should Virginia protect or change next?

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening And Lord’s Prayer
• 1:36 Voting Hours And ID Basics
• 2:56 Governor’s Race Stakes
• 4:50 Abortion Policy And Values
• 8:00 Virginia’s Redistricting Amendment
• 10:50 Special Session And Legality Claims
• 15:22 Delegate Freitas On Procedural Tactics
• 19:52 Germaneness And Floor Control
• 24:17 What Democrats Aim To Change
• 25:57 Call To Vote Republican Slate
• 28:57 Worst-Case Scenario Mindset
• 33:02 Life, Women’s Privacy, And Rights
• 37:47 Virginia’s Heritage And Resolve

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:15

Welcome back to Overopinionated. It's going to be a shorter episode, guys. We're going to talk about the elections happening across the Commonwealth today. We have the every house in the um House of Delegates is up for re-election. The governor's mansion, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general. The free big statewide racist. Always is. But before we do that, we're going to say the Lord's Prayer. We'll skip the Apostles' Creed. We'll just say the Lord's Prayer. And uh we'll get on with the show. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassed against us. Lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. Thine is the kingdom, the power, and glory forever and ever. Amen. Well, it is election day again in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This Tuesday at 6 A.M. Um the polls will open and they will close at 7 p.m. and everywhere in the Commonwealth. If you are in line before 7 p.m., they have to let you vote. They have to. You have to have one form of ID. Doesn't even have to be photo anymore. It could be your social security card. So go vote. Make sure you're in the right polling location. There's not much there's not a ton more I can say really than what I said in the previous episode where I talked um about the Virginia politics. Um so it'd be the one uh after it'd be the one uh after the Reformation Day that's labeled rage and hate. There's not been a ton of change, really, so we're gonna do a quick recap. Abigail Spanberger, the former congresswoman and CIA agent, is seeking to become the first female governor of of Virginia, and Winston Earl Sears, a immigrant from Jamaica, and a Marine Corps veteran, former delegate, and current lieutenant governor of Virginia, is also seeking to become the first woman governor in the history of Virginia. It will be a history, um, of the first female governor in the Commonwealth. So that that's neat. I guess it's cool, but I'll be honest, I don't care that much. Um not because I'm against women, I'm not because I care about the policies of these two. And we have seen Democrat policies and Republican policies. Obviously, I'm a Republican, I think that's the best way to govern. And the last four years before President Trump retook the White House, I believe spoke loudly. Abigail Spanberger supported Joe Biden every step of the way, um, when he made horrible decisions that hurt this country and this Commonwealth. Um and so there's that. Um there's the fact that she wants to codify abortion and make it a comp a state constitutional amendment. Uh to have abortion all the way up to the moment of birth, ripping apart a baby limb for limb, uh denying them their universal human right to exist and to be born safe. America is a great country if you can make it out of the womb. And some states respect that more than others. Right now, Virginia has no respect for unborn babies, despite the efforts of people like Glenn Youncan and Winsome Sears. So they say that they want to protect democracy while they want to go against a constitutional amendment that was passed by every locality except one in Virginia, and that was Alexandria. Every locality, every county except one, passed by over sixty percent of the vote, um, was a nonpartisan, a nonpartisan redistricting committee made up of both Republicans and Democrats, and if they couldn't go get along, it would go to the Supreme Court of Virginia. The Supreme Court it last time they couldn't get along, so it went to the Supreme Court of Virginia, where the Supreme Court of Virginia hired very professional map surveyors and makers to make our current maps which are not gerrymandered. Well, Democrats and the General Assembly have passed in both chambers a proposed constitutional amendment as the election is underway. And in Virginia you have to have you have to have um an election. You have to have an election and you have to pass the amendment twice before it can go up for a vote. Uh I'm sorry, two elections. Have to pass the amendment twice uh before it can go up for a vote and uh before the people of Virginia. But uh the election didn't start when they uh called for a special assembly to pass this so that we could so that Democrats could gerrymander uh the state and help out Democrats in Congress. Democrats in the legislature didn't pass this before the election started. The election in Virginia starts when the first ballot is cast. And I've already cast my ballot. I cast my ballot forty-five days ago. And Democrats want to sneak this by. Well, that's that's definitely going to head to the courts. And we'll see where the courts decide if the election starts. Um does the election start the first day it's cast? Or is it on election day? Or do they have to go back to the drawing board and pass it again on 26? But regardless, Democrats in in the House and the Senate do not care, and that's the Virginia House and Senate, do not care about the will of the people, wherever 60% said we don't want gerrymandered maps. They blame states like Texas and Ohio and the Republicans for redistricting for um gerrymandering. And make no mistake, we have been. But so are Democrats. So are Democrats. Are you telling me that not one Republican could be elected, or at least not have a swing district in Massachusetts? Have you not looked at Illinois or Maryland in their maps? It they gerrymander too. We're just better at controlling more states. That's all it is. And in principle, I'm completely against gerrymandering. That's why five years ago I voted for um amendment one, uh proposed constitutional amendment one with everyone else to get rid of uh uh just the legislatures drawing the maps and have a commission made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, or close to an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, appointed by the legislature. Um I understand they're appointed by the legislature, but if they can't get along, if they can't agree, then it goes to the Supreme Court of Virginia. And I want to play you part of um Nick Faradas' podcast. He's a delegate, a Republican delegate in the state of Virginia, libertarian libertarian leaning. I really like a lot of what Nick has to say. And uh I want to play you some of what him, Christian Hines, he's big on Twitter, are saying about the redistricting campaign. And um, we'll just give him a listen.

SPEAKER_00: 9:24

So why is this potentially illegal? Why is this so different than what's going on in other states right now? Well, like I said before, if your state legislature has full authority to draw the lines, then all they need is to pass a bill in order to draw the lines. That's it. Now, maybe you like that, maybe you don't like that, but it's not illegal. I mean, now there's some people that are claiming the special session is illegal. That's not accurate. The special session itself is illegal. The speaker of the House, the head of the Senate, they can call a special session. They can call us back in in order to address issues. Now, the way that they're typically supposed to do it, especially when they're actually piling on to an existing special session, is we're only supposed to cover down on certain things that we've agreed to. And typically, when you're adding something so different from what currently existed, then it's supposed to require a two-thirds majority. Why do we do this? Well, because special sessions are supposed to be just that. They're supposed to be special, and that's supposed to be something that we do all the time. We're supposed to handle our business during regular order, which is the constitutional process where we have our general sessions. We're only supposed to pick up special sessions if something crazy is happening. Now they started in special session because they wanted to trash Trump. And what they were doing is they said, well, because of Doge, Doge is gonna Doge is gonna impact federal workers. And because Virginia has so many federal workers, we might need to come back into special session in order to adjust the budget and to help those federal workers. When in reality, what they mean is we might need to come into special submission to trash Donald Trump.

unknown: 10:54

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 10:54

That's what they said about. But the reason why they could get away with it is because Doge was going on. There were discussions about um federal employees being cut, and because that is such an impact to the Virginia budget, they can get away with saying we really, really need to have them special submission. Now, originally, they wanted to call the special session to deal with SNEP benefits because of the government shutdown, which by the way is a Democrat caused government shutdown, and we've explained that on a previous episode. Instead of Democrats calling up their two senators, Mark Warner and Tim King, and saying, hey, how about you guys stop threatening a filibuster, vote for the clean continuing resolution, and then you can debate about all these other things. They said no because they want the leverage. They want federal workers to be suffering right now so they can use it as leverage because they think Republicans will get blamed for it. Right? Virginia House Democrats and Virginia House Senators, or Virginia Senators, thought the same thing. And so they thought this is this is gonna be key. Because the government shutdown is impacting SNEP benefits for our federal employees. We're gonna call the special session then we're gonna come in, and an endward falls perfectly in line with why we have the special session going. The problem is Governor Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency and then funded the SNEP project for Virginia federal workers. So now all of a sudden, they don't have the same justification to come in. But the real reason why they wanted to come in was twofold. The first reason why is they wanted to do redistricting reform. So again, despite the fact that just five years ago, Virginians voted overwhelmingly to send up a bipartisan commission in order to drum our lines, Democrats are now coming and say, nope, we're gonna totally kick that out, and now it's gonna be Democrats the ones joining the lines for Virginia. That's what we want. Not what the people want it, but that's what Democrats want. So that's what they're attempting to do. Now, technically, could they do that? Yes, it's a little bit questionable on whether or not they should be able to add it to the resolution, right? If if you wanted an honest interpretation of what we call germaneness, or is the topic that you're bringing up relevant to the topics that you said you wanted to cover in special session? The answer to this would be no. And and a speaker of the house that was being honest about this would say, yeah, this is not technically germane to what we said about, but they decided it's just been the rules, and quite frankly, they have the power to do so.

SPEAKER_01: 13:08

And we don't have the way it seems like um the whoever's in power gets to decide if it's germane or not. Yes. Like I was watching the session and and they they pulled themselves back for like jumping off the cameras for a second, conferred with each other, and then came back and beat them like we've decided it's germane.

SPEAKER_00: 14:52

It's it's a delegate pony show. Like I've actually seen speakers come forward and and rule something ungermane, like not germane, against their own party, but it's far and few between. This happened with Bill Hammell. Bill Hammell were you gonna be elected. It happened on this topic. This we were gonna read the topic. We were gonna redraw the lines in Virginia. Republicans were gonna redraw the lines in Virginia in order to help tremendo pick up an ascendancy for the Republicans. And Bill Hamel, the then Republican speaker of the House, when the bill came over from the Senate to the House, Bill Hammill said, This is not germane. He killed it. I mean, he was giving he killed it right there. He was given in an honest, he gave what he believed was an honest interpretation. He thought this was an inappropriate way to do this. And so a Republican had an opportunity, and this is before we had a commission. Before we had an independent, if he would have said yes, they could have done it just like that. And he said, nope, I don't think this is the proper way to do business. He didn't say no because, well, this violates this independent commission we just voted on. He said no because he didn't think it was in the proper order the way that we did these things. And and to and and to his point, it wasn't in the way that we typically did it. Right? But here's the thing, here's the deal. His intellectual honesty and consistency, which was praised by the Democrats at the time, it is now just being completely disregarded and ignored by the current Democrats. And this is another reason why when people say, oh, well, Texas started it, I'm looking at him going, oh, no, they did not. No, they did not. In many respects, this is what I like to refer to as a delayed reaction to Democrat aggression. And now the Democrats are coming back and demonstrating that, yep, they just don't care. So, anyways, they they rule everything germane, and um, I totally forget where I was at now. Um they were they were going through, you know, so they brought in the special session, um, and then they they they brought up forward the resolution, adding the redistricting, and we had some questions for now. Before they even got to that, there's another thing I need to point out. We have something in the General Assembly called morning hour. And what morning hour is, is it's an opportunity for us to um make various motions, to introduce people that have visited the Capitol, um, or to uh pass commending or memorial resolutions. These are just kind of resolutions where we congratulate something for something they did well, or we memorialize someone who's recently died. Um and then we do four speeches. Uh that's what we call points of personal privilege. A point of personal privilege is an opportunity for a legislature to be able to speak on anything they would like to speak about. Here's what typically happens: Democrats get up, they do some introductions, Republicans do some introductions, um, and it it basically happens in order that you push your button. So you push your button to speak, the speaker sees it, and then you know, the the delegate from so-and-so may rise up, you know, Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of an introduction, I rise for the purpose of a motion, I rise for the purpose of a request, I rise for the purpose of a point of personal privilege, whatever it is. He grants you the floor and then you speak. And it usually goes back and forth. Democrats have introductions, we have them, they have points of personal privilege, we have them. This time, let me get this clear. On a random Monday, in a special session where we almost never have any guests, they filled up the entire morning and hour with just introductions and all Democrat introductions. And I know them because I pushed my button. And they went through introduction after introduction, they introduced Planned Parenthood, they introduced all kinds of left-wing organizations, democratic committees. Democratic committees, democratic committees. So instead of us getting to say anything about the actual reasons why we were there during morning hour, Democrats crammed up the entire time is because the speaker gets to decide who gets called on. Zero Republicans were called on, it was all Democrats, and it was all Democrat pony show. Then when they moved into presenting the resolution and we had questions on the resolution, the speaker started rolling them out of order. Now, again, the speaker claims that we you're not addressing the resolution, you're trying to talk to the underlying legislation. But no, a lot of our concerns weren't having to do with whether or not this resolution actually made sense. And so they just ruled them out of order. And then finally we had someone that got to speak to the resolution who basically brought up that he just thought this was unprecedented in Virginia history. And that was it. That was all we got. That was all we got. Then we got to come back on Wednesday, and Wednesday is when they're actually gonna present the language, and then that's where we have an opportunity, and this part is important because there's a lot of people questioning whether or not we should even show up to this. And I tend to be of the opinion that this is kind of a Duncan pony show, and you know, I don't really want to be a part of it. The one thing that is important though is we need to be able to ask questions about what they're actually going to do. We need to be able to ask questions about the language of this resolution because there's a couple areas where this is truly problematic. What do you want to say with that?

SPEAKER_01: 19:46

Um, you know, from left-wing media sources that that claim they have sources within the Democratic Party is that, oh no, no, no, this isn't going to get rid of the bipartisan commission. This is just going to trigger the bipartisan commission to redraw the lines. And so they they have these, it's basically no no them that amendment stays, but we're we're going to trigger them to go ahead and do it you know, at the five-year mark instead of at the 10-year mark.

SPEAKER_00: 20:19

Which would make no sense. Why would you do that unless you thought you could gain from it? In fact, now might be a good time to talk about what would I will go into what what I think is illegal about this process of what they're doing, but now it might be a good time for us to actually pull up the congressional map and show you what Democrats are really gonna try to do in Virginia, right? This is what I think they're gonna actually try to do. Do you got the uh maps you want to show? Oh no, Nick Cott Nick Cotton.

SPEAKER_02: 20:42

We're gonna we're gonna call it right there. Um from Delegate Freitas, but uh that that just shows you typical Democrats. Um and uh so it's very, very, very important that you go out and you vote for Winsom Sears, you vote for John Reed, and you vote for Jason Meneeris. Our side's not perfect, I understand that. But there used to there's an old saying that Republicans say is we may not be perfect, but we're not crazy. Um I understand John Reed's openly gay, we've talked about that before. I disagree with that lifestyle. But the lieutenant governor can pat can strike down bad bills. And um he's very close in the polls. And um you know, I'm not gonna make a prediction about anyone who wins. But I will ask you this. Go vote for your local Republican candidate running for the House of Delegates. It's so important. We need we gotta we need to elect Mitchell Cornet to his first term. We need to elect Jason re-elect Jason Balor in my whole district. We need to elect Chris Oberchain in a very um very tight election. Um the way it's been drawn. We um We need to re-elect these people. We need man, if I we flip the House of Delegates, I'd be so happy. But even if we can't flip it, let's just keep it the same. Let's keep the governor's mansion, keep the veto power. And um you know, let's mention Jay Jones one more time. He said he wants uh he wanted former Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert to be shot in the head twice. Wanted his wife to feel the pain of her children dying. Why? Because they have political different opinions on gun control. And because Jay Jones is a piece of human crap. How can you say that and be a Christian? Well, uh guys, I'm not denying that he's made the image of God. Maybe I'm using some strong language, but I don't want him to die. I want him to repent and go to heaven. He shouldn't. You do not wish death on your political opponents. That's not something you do in a that's not something you should do in America. That's not something you should do in Virginia. They used to be called something the Virginia Way, and a lot of r establishment people love that. They're gonna work together, they're gonna be better than the rest of the country. Put politics aside. It was it was all a sham. It always was a sham basically. Now, there's always probably more respect in Virginia. Um you know, Virginia's no um Virginia's no stranger to having a divided government. In all reality, we're not. Um there are many times where the uh Virginia had a a very strong Republican presence in the House of Delegates in the Democrat Senate and the Democrat um is the governor. Happened a lot. Uh the Republicans controlled the House of Delegates for 30 years. While Democrats controlled off and on the the state senate and and the governor's race. Um We know what the who everyone stands for. We know what everyone stands for. Um we know the policies. We know the positions. Um, I just want to end with you guys. Tonight. Let's say worst case scenario. I don't want it to happen. This worst case scenario. If we lose tomorrow, if the Democrats take full control of Virginia and we go through a stretch of darkness in this Commonwealth where the people in power stop listening and start stirring everything to suit themselves. If the Democrats pass this constitutional amendment to redraw districts whenever it benefits them, if it goes through the courts and they say, Yeah, this was legal, they do it one more time, and then it goes up to the people. Maybe the people vote for it, maybe they don't. But that's dangerous. They'll tighten the grip. They'll call it they'll call it um payback for what the Democrats are doing, for what the Republicans are doing in Texas and other states. They screw us out of seats in Illinois and in Massachusetts. Massachusetts should have at least one Republican, a leaning district. But it's all about power. That's all it is. This is all about power. Now, that's bad enough. But it it kind of does go deeper than that. We're we're fighting for universal human rights of unborn babies. That's not just a buzzword. A vision slapped on a campaign mailers. This is something I mean. This is something Christians mean. The human rights of unborn children to be born alive, not discarded, not dehumanized, not treated like some inconvenience, not treat it like trash. Life is life, and life that is innocent deserves to be protected in this Commonwealth and in this nation. We are fighting for the rights and dignity and privacy of women in their own locker room, in their own bathroom. Cause just because you put a man with a penis and a dress does not make him a woman. Oh, gender's different. Gender is technically different than sex. Shut up. All this academical bullcrap where professors are coming up with this crap, and not only that, it's just okay, uh there's men and there's women biologically, and a very, very small set of people that are intersex. Very, very small. Men cannot become women, women cannot become men, and w real women, real women should be able to have their private spaces without men invading them. That's common sense. And we are fighting because we know what's right. We're not backing down, not today, not tomorrow, not ten years from now. In the worst case scenario, if we lose tomorrow, we will not give up on Virginia, we will not give up on freedom, we will not give up on truth, we will not give up on human rights for the unborn or protection for women. We will keep fighting for what is right, no matter how long it takes, because it is worth it. Hear me. Just because the road might go dark does not mean the light goes out. Because I'm a proud Virginian. This Commonwealth, my home, your home, is the birthplace of America. We produced Washington, the man who walked away from power when he could have taken it all. We produced Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, men who carried a flame that that caused the entire world, that showed the entire world that free people can govern themselves. Were we perfect? No. None of us are. Were those men perfect? No, none of us none of us are. Virginia has stumbled, we have sinned multiple times, we have taken step backwards in history. We have we'll never forget. But God has been merciful, He has corrected us, He has humbled us, He has judged it, judged us, and sometimes He has restored us. And we have risen again and again, not because we are faultless, but because we remember what is right and we resolve to do better. So if the worst happens tomorrow, if the Democrats win everything, if the ballots fall the wrong way, I'm not going quiet, I'm not g going to despair, I'm not giving up, I'm not packing and moving to Tennessee or West Virginia. I don't think it'd be at that time yet. I think you can eventually, but that's a last case scenario. This is my home, and I'm gonna fight for it. Because Virginia is older than any trend, stronger than any political party, and deeper than any political moment. It's older than the Constitution, it's older than this country itself. We have survived tyrants, war, uh depression, riots, failures, storms, civil war. And we are still here. Still standing, still proud, still free, because we choose to be. So tomorrow, let's make the right choice. Let's stand up for life, let's stand up for women's privacy and dignity. A man should not be standing in the way of them in their locker rooms or in their bathrooms. Let us stand for dignity and truth for families, for what is good and right in God honoring. Because God still judges the nations. No matter what, I'll say this I'm a proud Virginian, and you should be too. I've lived in the Commonwealth for twenty nine years. I wasn't born here. I was born, I like to joke and say I was born on the wrong side of Bluefield. Bluefield hospital, which is five minutes from well, actually, it's not even I used to say it's five minutes. It borders Bluefield, Virginia. There's a town called Bluefield, half Virginia, half West Virginia. Just like Bristol, Tennessee, half Tennessee, half Virginia. It was the closest hospital to my parents. Maybe I was born on the wrong side of Bluefield. Bluefield West. But I've lived all 29 years in this beautiful Commonwealth in Southwest Virginia. Much of it in the New River Valley. Um I love. I love this state. I love this state from the ocean to the mountains. I love being a Virginian. That means the world to me. Um when I read history, even men like I know, I know people hate Robert Ely now because of the Confederacy, but if you look and see why he fought for Virginia, you can disagree with his reasonings, but it's because he loved the Commonwealth of Virginia. And I love this Commonwealth. I love this Commonwealth. No matter who's my governor, no matter who's in charge, I might criticize, I might hit my head against the wall, but I'm just as proud of Virginia as I am an American, and sometimes more. Virginia helped found the United States of America, not the other way around. We are the Commonwealth of Virginia. We are Virginians. Let's make the right decision. Let's look at the past when we have ignored people that were different than us. Like Native Americans, like African Americans, like many minorities that we denied universal human rights to. And now let's look at the unborn. They're different than us. They're less developed than us. They don't look exactly like us. Should we deny their human rights, their right to life, because they they're not the same as us? The same way God judged us for the evils of Jim Crow and slavery and the harsh treatments of a Native American. I do believe God judged Virginia harshly. He spared us, he gave us mercy, but he judged us harshly too. I believe he will also do that for killing unborn children. And you can claim that you're afraid Trump is a threat to democracy. Even though he's not, even though he's obeyed the process. Oh, January 6th, whatever. Donald Trump never called for an insurrection. He called for them to fight like hell. Um, maybe some words that he shouldn't have said at a heated moment. But I've been told to fight like hell in a locker room before a football game. Many times. He wasn't saying to literally invade the Capitol building. So no, you're not saving the saving democracy. You're not. You're not a superhero. You're not saving democracy. You know, it seems like every time Republicans win, it's because democracy is die dead to Democrats. So if you vote for the wrong person, then democracy's dead. That's just how Democrats feel. If you vote for the right person, then um then democracy's not dead. So if you vote if you vote for the right person in their eyes, the Democrats, then democracy is not dead. If you vote for the wrong person, the Republicans, democracy's dead. And there'll never be an election again, except for every year in Virginia we have an election. But they'll take away our right to vote, and they don't. Still here. This is not Nazi Germany. This is not the Soviet Union. This is the United States of America. We have elections, they're free and fair. Not saying you can't criticize anomalies or you can't criticize the laws, you can. But um yeah, this whole Republicans are taking away democracy as Democrats try to rush in at the very last minute a constitutional amendment to make Virginia's maps less fair. Talk about ironic. Talk about eronic. So I ask for you this to I ask for you this today. To simply vote and pray. May God bless you. May God bless the Commonwealth of Virginia. Um end on the Lord's prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day your daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen. God bless you. God bless Virginia, six center Tyranos.