What Spanberger Vetoes in 2026 Will Tell Us a Lot About 2028

Shortly after the 2025 election victories of Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, Douglas MacKinnon penned an op-ed for The Hill titled; “Forget Crockett and AOC: Spanberger, Sherrill are Democrats’ faces for 2028.”  

Now I’m beginning to hear from Richmond insiders that the bellwether will be if the governor’s veto pen gets a break this summer or not. 

Over his four-year term, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 399 bills. By far and away a record for a Virginia governor and not at all surprising because of the Democrat majority in the House and Senate that he faced for all four years.  

However, with what Speaker Don Scott called “the largest Democrat majority in four decades,” what would possibly be presented to Spanberger that would cause her to veto anything in the party’s legislative agenda?  

2028, that’s what. 

To be certain, there are those in Richmond expecting the new “centrist star” of the Democrats to parlay this notoriety into a run for the presidential nomination at least, and what she does with the veto pen will be telling. 

Already pre-filed are bills that increase the minimum wage in Virginia to $15 per hour, require a state-issued license to even shop for a firearm, create a series of local right-of-first-refusal laws designed to force property owners to sell housing inventory to their local governments, and creates a right to contraceptive medicines. 

Another bill closes the loophole in the Virginia Clean Economy Act that was just invoked to allow Dominion Energy to build a new gas-fired power generation station.  

Here’s the best part: Spanberger can veto any number of these bills that would be less popular even to Democrats in “flyover country,” making her seem less extreme than say the governor of California or Illinois. Just saying. 

So as the 2026 General Assembly begins we will be watching to see if particularly extreme “sacrificial lamb” bills are introduced specifically there to be vetoed.

However, even if none of those come about, if the veto pen isn’t given the year off in 2026, it will tell us a lot about what to look for in 2028. 

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