Virginia

Virginia is a mid-Atlantic state of 8.7 million people and holds 11 congressional seats, currently split 7 Democratic, 4 Republican. It is one of the few competitive states that has trended steadily Democratic over the past decade, driven by the expanding DC suburbs in Northern Virginia. The state legislature has a Democratic majority; the governor is Glenn Youngkin (R). Loudoun County, on the western edge of the DC metro area, anchors the world's largest data centre cluster and is the state's fastest-growing jurisdiction by assessed value.

Virginia is the global epicentre of data-centre density, led by Loudoun County, which rejected its own moratorium in March 2025 and continues to approve projects via a mandatory special exception process. On 12 February 2026 the Loudoun Planning Commission voted 7-1-1 to recommend a 268,700 sq ft industrial rezoning for data-centre use; the county's Phase 2 standards process is scheduled for potential adoption in December 2026. Good Jobs First calculates that Virginia loses more than $1 billion per year in data-centre sales-and-use tax abatements. The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court ruling in April 2026 that Prince William County had fast-tracked a roughly 2,000-acre rezoning near Manassas National Battlefield Park without adequate public notice.

A state budget standoff that had paralysed fiscal planning since early March 2026 resolved on 22 June 2026. Senate Finance chair Louise Lucas had sought to end the sales-and-use abatement entirely by end-2026; the House had sought to extend it to 2035. The final budget replaces the abatement with a $0.011 per kilowatt-hour consumption tax on data-centre power, covering both utility-supplied and self-generated behind-the-meter generation. The levy is capped at $600 million per year and sunsets on 1 July 2028. It is the first US state tax to reach past the meter, applying to the same behind-the-meter generation the Department of Energy twice ordered curtailed in PJM territory in 2026. The Senate passed it 23 to 16 and the House 71 to 22. A proposed $35-$45 per kilowatt backup-generator fee was dropped; the sales-and-use exemption was preserved.

Compass Datacenters, which had cancelled two site searches in Greensville County and Emporia over fiscal uncertainty, now has a fixed cost to plan around. The Berry Hill megasite approval of 26 May 2026, which was explicitly conditioned on tax resolution, can proceed on those terms. The combination of judicial constraints, county-level planning scrutiny, and a defined time-limited levy marks a departure from Virginia's prior operator-friendly consensus.

Virginia held a statewide referendum on 21 April 2026 on whether to authorise the legislature to undertake mid-decade redistricting, which polling indicated could produce up to four additional Democratic congressional seats. The Washington Post polled the referendum at 52-47 percent Yes with roughly $79 million in combined campaign spending, and Cook Political Report had moved five Virginia seats toward Democrats on the contemplated map ahead of the vote. The Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the redistricting amendment 4-3 on 8 May 2026, closing the state's mid-decade redistricting route for the 2026 cycle regardless of the referendum result. Virginia's 11-seat delegation, split 7 Democratic to 4 Republican, will run under its existing lines in November.