State of the Race: Virginia's 2026 Elections
Including when and how you can VOTE 🗳️
🚨 We temporarily interrupt our Myth of the Week series to bring you an election update. We want to make sure you’re up to speed on the changes! 🚨
Myth of the Week will return next Tuesday.
We posted about the state of the VA-01 election in January, and a lot has happened since, so it’s time for an update. We’ll cover:
Virginia’s redistricting
The candidates remaining in the race
Dates and deadlines you need to know
New map! New map!
It looks likely that Virginia’s Congressional district maps are going to change. VPAP has an outstanding collection of resources on this, including a search that’ll show you what district you’ll be in should these maps be passed. But how exactly will these maps be passed (or not), and when?
The new map was released on February 5th. It now needs to be voted on through the legislature and signed into law by Governor Spanberger. Assuming that happens, there will be a special statewide referendum on April 21st where you will vote for or against the redistricting. Should the people of Virginia vote for it - and the Virginia Supreme Court doesn’t rule against the whole effort - the new map will go into effect for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 congressional elections.
The legislature has not given itself the power to continue to redraw maps. That power will expire after 2030, when the new census will be taken and the process will return to that which exists today, which means the independent Commission will be responsible for all maps.
A shifting candidate landscape
Since our last update on the state of the VA-01 race, Lisa Vedernikova Khanna has dropped out of the race while just last week Jacob Roginsky became an official candidate for the First District. Here are all the ways (that we know of) you can find them:
We’re in something of a limbo state right now, since the districts could change significantly as of April 22nd. Inevitably, there are big questions as to how the electoral competitions may shape up. If the maps don’t pass, the field of candidates for VA-01 will remain as it is now. If the maps DO pass, we have limited info on how the candidacies will change. Some candidates have already announced their intentions for that scenario; others haven’t yet. Here’s what we understand so far if the new maps go into effect:
Elizabeth Dempsey-Beggs will stay in the new VA-01
Salaam Bhatti, Shannon Taylor, and Mel Tull will switch to the new VA-05
Lewis Littlepage will switch to the new VA-08
Tim Cywinski and Ericka Kopp support the new maps but haven’t said what they’ll do if they pass
Jacob Roginsky hasn’t announced his intentions
Rob Wittman hypocritically opposes the maps and hasn’t announced what he’ll do if they pass.
Some are speculating that, if the maps are passed, Wittman will retire rather than try to compete in the new VA-01 or VA-08. We’re not so sure. In any case, the competition in VA-01 or any of the three new districts will be more significant than Wittman has ever encountered in his career.
The dates you need to know, and what to do NOW
There will be three elections in Virginia this year:
Special statewide referendum
Democratic Party primary (there is no Republican primary because no other Republican is running against Wittman)
US federal elections for the House of Representatives
The table above has all the dates for each election. The action starts as early as March 6th! So here’s what you need to do now:
Register to vote! All the instructions are here. You can do it online or at multiple convenient locations across the state.
Encourage your family and friends to register to vote! Make it a party - have a coffee or hardier beverage, grab your laptops/phones, and get it done. Or go do it in person, together. Get prepped to exercise your democratic rights as US citizens!
Find out where you can vote in person! The polling place finder makes this simple. Enter your details and it’ll tell you exactly where to go on Election Day.
Help get candidates on the ballot! People can’t just ask to be on electoral ballots. They need to show the community supports their candidacy by getting signatures on petitions. There have been and will continue to be multiple petition-signing events, so look out for those and ensure your favored candidates are on the ballots. (This only applies to the Democratic primary this year.)
Vote early! Early in-person voting is tremendously convenient. All the info is here. You can vote early at many locations across the state (usually not your polling place!), which are controlled by your local registrar, and this site lets you find contact details for those excellent people.
Vote early - by mail! Won’t be in town on Election Day, or just want to get this done now? No problem: request your absentee ballot and submit it early. You can request your absentee ballot right here.
Vote on Election Day! If you haven’t voted early in-person or by mail, you can stroll up to your local polling place on Election Day and cast your vote. You’ll get a sticker, a glow of satisfaction, and the knowledge that you’ve done your part as an American citizen.
That’s not so complicated, right? There are moves afoot to make voting more complicated — the so-called “SAVE America Act” and “Make Elections Great Again (MEGA) Act.” Wittman has already voted for the former, and he’ll likely do the same for the latter, because they would skew the Republican Party’s chances of winning to a possibly insurmountable degree. These costly and unnecessary Acts address a voter fraud problem that simply doesn’t exist. They’d eliminate mail-in voting, and would jeopardize the votes of the military, married women, and elderly, disabled, rural, and overseas Americans. The SAVE America and MEGA Acts should not be passed by Congress because they rip away people’s voting rights for no reason. Tell your representatives that!
Strange times
These are certainly strange times in which we live. The redistricting maps add to the turbulence, but the process is still reasonably straightforward.
Ten people, including Wittman, are running in VA-01 right now. In the comments, let us know your thoughts about the race and how candidates can best beat Wittman, no matter which district he runs in. You can also comment on any of our social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, and Reddit.