Virginia’s Board of Elections met Monday to certify the 2025 election. The final stage in election counting, it confirmed Democrats won every statewide race as well as 13 additional House of Delegates seats.
Total turnout in the 2025 election was just a bit below the last gubernatorial race in 2021, but the outcome was much different, with Democrat Abigail Spanberger sailing past outgoing Governor Glenn Youngkin’s win margin by about 13 points.
Democrats in the House of Delegates now hold 64 seats, up from 51.
One place Democrats saw big shifts— according to Mike Foley at elections data site State Navigate: colleges.
“The state as a whole flipped about 9 to 10 points more Democratic. Harris plus 6 vs. Spanberger plus 15," Foley said. "But colleges went about 18 points more Democratic"
Virginia Tech saw the largest swing, moving 34 points leftward. Radford and Hampton moved 23 points. George Mason swung by 17.
Will Winters is Virginia State Director for NextGen, a Democratic get out the vote group that targets college students.
“Students are very aware of what’s going on in the world, the Commonwealth, it’s like instantaneous headline news," Winters told Radio IQ. "But they’re not aware of the roadblocks to voting, so a lot of pushing same-day voter registration.”
Even conservative Liberty University swung left by almost 6 points.
Matt Andersen is with Liberty’s chapter of Young Republicans. His advice for the next batch of Republican candidates?
“Tailor the message toward younger people, for the issues that actually affect us: the economy, jobs and even immigration,” Andersen said.
Next year Virginia’s eleven congressional seats, and Mark Warner’s Senate seat, will be up for grabs.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
