Editorial – What Virginia voters are thinking

Published 5:29 pm Wednesday, January 22, 2025

We appreciate the Wason Center for Civic Leadership at Christopher Newport University for keeping a finger on the pulse of Virginians when it comes to politics and government policy.

The center last week released the results of its annual State of the Commonwealth survey, covering everything from voters’ top priorities for the current General Assembly session to an early read on the 2025 gubernatorial race.

Key findings included:

  • A plurality of Virginians say the state is headed in the right direction (49% right, 11% mixed, 31% wrong), but are more pessimistic about the direction of the country (31% right, 6% mixed, 58% wrong).  
  • In the governor’s race, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, the presumed Democratic nominee, leads Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by five percentage points, 44% to 39%. As important 16% remain undecided and another 2% say they will vote for someone else.  
  • Current Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s performance gets a thumbs-up from 53% of Virginians.
  • Looking ahead to President Donald Trump’s second term, a plurality (36%) of Virginians think he will be an unsuccessful president, while 31% say it is too early to tell, and 31% say he will be a successful president. 
  • Voters’ top priorities for the governor and General Assembly are improving K-12 education (70%), reducing health care costs (68%) and strengthening the state’s economy (65%). 
  • A majority supports amending the state’s constitution to guarantee abortion rights in the state, including access to abortion and contraception (61%).
  • Nearly two-thirds of Virginians favor allowing felons who have completed their prison sentence to have their voting rights automatically restored upon release.
  • Regarding state government’s budget surplus, a plurality of Virginians say it should go primarily to government services (46%), while 40% say it should go toward a one-time rebate for individual taxpayers with the remainder going toward government services, and 11% say it should go primarily toward long-term individual and corporate tax cuts.
  • Virginia likely voters support charging people involved in a drug sale that leads to a death with felony homicide (76% support/strongly support).
  • On the topic of data centers, Virginians support laws that would prohibit locating them within a mile of a national park, state park or historically significant site (67% to 27%), and that would require data center companies that receive state tax incentives to improve energy efficiency and reduce their energy consumption during peak demand (77% to 16%). A plurality supports removing state tax incentives used to encourage the building of data centers in the state (48% to 39%), while a majority oppose expanding state and local tax incentives to encourage more data centers (57% to 34%). 
  • Some three-quarters of survey respondents said they support requiring K-12 schools to have a cellphone usage policy but would allow localities to set their own rules about usage.

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