January 28, 2026

Virginians Show High Levels of Support for: Amendments to State Constitution on Reproductive Rights, and Felon Re-enfranchisement; Retail Marijuana Sale; Limits on Data Centers; $15 per hour Minimum Wage; Paid Sick Leave; Paid Family and Medical Leave

Slight Majorities or a Plurality of Virginians Support Eliminating 1 Percent Local Option Sales Tax; Making Gun Laws Stricter; Some Changes to Right-to-Work and Redistricting mid-cycle

Summary of Key Findings

1. A plurality of Virginians say the state is headed in the right direction (46% right, 10% mixed, 35% wrong) but are more pessimistic about the direction of the country (28% right, 6% mixed, 65% wrong).
2. 34% of Virginians approve of the job President Trump is doing while 62% disapprove; 4% don’t know. Youngkin’s final gubernatorial approval rating was 44%.
3. Looking ahead to Governor Abigail Spanberger’s term, a majority of Virginians are optimistic (60%), while 3% are mixed and 33% are pessimistic about her term as governor.
4. Virginian’s say the following are the top issues facing the state: inflation and cost of living (31%), political extremism/threats to democracy (22%), healthcare (11%), and K-12 education (10%).
5. A majority of Virginians support amending the state’s constitution to guarantee reproductive rights in the state, such as access to abortion and contraception (66% support/strongly support) and to allow felons that have completed their prison sentence to have their voting rights automatically restored upon release (64% support/strongly support).
6. On redistricting, while a majority of Virginians support the current way the state does redistricting (63%), a narrow majority support a constitutional amendment that would temporarily change that method to allow the state legislature to draw new district lines mid-way through the census cycle in response to other states (51% support/strongly support).
7. A majority of Virginians support allowing the retail sale of recreational marijuana in the Commonwealth (60%).
8. When it comes to data centers, Virginians support laws that would prohibit locating them within a mile of a national park, state park, or historically significant site (69%), requiring newly constructed data centers to derive their energy from renewable or nuclear sources (63%), requiring a site assessment before data center approval looking at water usage, the electric grid, carbon emissions, and agricultural impacts (86%), and a law requiring localities to conduct a noise study if the site is close to homes or schools (81%).
9. On Virginia’s right-to-work law, Virginian’s hold somewhat contradictory views with a majority supporting keeping the law as-is (58% to 33%), while also narrowly supporting a full repeal (50% to 42%). Pluralities support modifying the law such that non-union members work under separate contracts from union members (44% to 43%) and no longer requiring unions to represent non-union members in work disputes (54% to 37%).
10. A large majority of Virginians support increasing Virginia’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2028 (78% support/strongly support) and requiring Virginia employers to provide some form of paid sick leave to employees (80% support/strongly support).
11. A majority of Virginians support a law requiring Virginia to establish a paid family and medical leave program providing up to 12 weeks of benefits for eligible individuals (84% support/strongly support).

Analysis summary: Newly elected Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger was sworn in last week as the first female governor of the Commonwealth. In addition, the Virginia General Assembly session is well underway. Both chambers of the General Assembly are controlled by Democrats giving the party the opportunity to pass its agenda largely unincumbered. Lawmakers are considering a range of policy issues, many of which we cover in this survey.

The survey results show many policy proposals with either majority or plurality support from Republicans, Independents and Democrats. In particular, voters share some common ground on placing limits or requirements on data centers, no longer requiring unions to represent non-union members in work disputes, offering paid sick leave to workers, and establishing a paid parental and medical leave program in Virginia. Republicans and Democrats are more divided on other policy issues such as constitutional amendments that would guarantee reproductive rights, allow the state legislature to draw new Congressional districts, and restore felon voting rights upon release, in addition to Virginia’s right to work law, and whether to make gun laws more or less strict, or leave them as is.

State of things: When asked about the direction of the Commonwealth, 46% say Virginia is headed in the right direction, while 35% say the wrong direction and 10% are mixed. Governor Youngkin’s final job approval rating of his term was 44%, while 43% indicated they disapprove and 13% said they don’t know. This is down from a year ago when Youngkin’s approval rating was 53%.

Looking ahead, 60% of Virginian’s are optimistic about Spanberger’s term as governor, while 3% are mixed and 33% are pessimistic; 4% say they don’t know. There are partisan, racial, and education differences on this question with Democrats being the most optimistic (95%), followed by Independents (55%); 72% of Republicans say they are pessimistic. Black Virginians are more optimistic (86%) than white Virginians (55%). Those with a college degree are largely optimistic about Spanberger’s term (73%) compared to 49% of those without a college degree.

Direction of the country: Virginia registered voters remain fairly pessimistic about the direction of the country. Only 28% say the United States is headed in the right direction (down from 31% a year ago) while 65% say the country is headed in the wrong direction, 6% are mixed and 2% say they don’t know. Democrats are unanimous in their pessimism with 100% indicating the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Some of this pessimism comes through in Virginian’s views of President Trump’s job performance. Trump’s approval rating is under water with 62% saying they disapprove of the way he is handling his job as president, while 34% approve and 4% say they don’t know. Most Republicans approve of Trump (89%), while nearly all Democrats (98%) disapprove, along with 66% of Independents.

Top Issues Facing the Commonwealth: We asked Virginians what they think the most import issue facing Virginians is today. Rounding out the top four issues are inflation/cost of living (31%), political extremism/threats to democracy (22%), healthcare (11%), and K-12 education (10%).

The most important issue varies by partisanship with top issues for Republicans including inflation/cost of living (29%) and immigration (17%), while Democrats say political extremism (31%) and inflation/cost of living (28%); Independents say their top two issues are inflation/cost of living (36%) and political extremism (22%).

Constitutional Amendments on Reproductive Rights and Felon Re-enfranchisement: The General Assembly is considering several constitutional amendments including one that would guarantee reproductive rights in the Commonwealth, such as access to contraception and abortion and another that would allow felons that have completed their prison sentence to have their voting rights automatically restored upon release. Virginians surveyed indicate support for both with 66% saying they support/strongly support amending the constitution to guarantee reproductive rights, while 64% support/strongly support felon re-enfranchisement after a completed prison sentence.

The proposed reproductive rights amendment has a sizable partisan, gender and racial gap. Democrats support/strongly support the amendment at 91% compared to 33% of Republicans and 64% of Independents. Women support/strongly support the amendment at 74% compared to 58% of men. Black Virginians support/strongly support stands at 78% compared to 65% of white Virginians.

On felon re-enfranchisement, the racial gap is even larger with 61% of white Virginians indicating support compared to 80% of Black Virginians. Democrats are also more supportive at 82% support/strongly support compared to 36% of Republicans and 68% of Independents.

Marijuana Retail Sale and Local Sales Tax: A majority of Virginians favor allowing retail sale of recreational marijuana (60%) and eliminating the 1 percent local option sales tax and replacing it with state funds (55%).

On marijuana retail sale, Democrats show stronger support (74%) than Republicans (38%), and Independents (59%). Younger voters (18-44) show higher levels of support than those 45+ (74% to 48%).

On eliminating the local sales tax, Democrats are slightly more supportive than Republicans (56% to 46%), while Independents are the most supportive (58%).

Data centers: Data centers have been a hot topic in recent years as their numbers have grown significantly, particularly in Northern Virginia, though more are being considered across the state. We asked Virginians whether they would support or oppose a series of proposals related to data centers. A majority of Virginia registered voters support a law that would prohibit locating data centers within a mile of a national park, state park, or historically significant site (69%), a law requiring a site assessment to look at potential impacts on water usage, the electric grid, carbon emissions, and agriculture (86%), a law requiring a noise study if the site is close to homes or schools (81%), and a law requiring newly constructed data centers to derive all their energy from renewable or nuclear sources (63%).

Right to Work: We asked Virginians a series of questions associated with the Commonwealth’s right to work law and the results are, in some cases, contradictory. Virginians show some support for two potential ways the law could be modified. The first, which would allow union and non-union members to work under separate contracts, receives a narrow plurality of support (44% to 43%), while a majority support no longer requiring unions to represent non-union members in work disputes (54% to 37%). As for the law as a whole, a majority (58%) support keeping the law as-is; however, 50% indicate support for repealing the law in its entirety.

Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave, and Paid Family and Medical Leave: Fairly large majorities support an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2028 (78% support/strongly support), requiring employers to provide some form of paid sick leave (80% support/strongly support), and a law requiring Virginia to establish a paid family and medical leave program providing benefits up to 12 weeks for eligible individuals such as new parents, those with a serious illness, or those caring for someone with a serious illness (84% support/strongly support).

Republicans are fairly split on a minimum wage increase with 48% saying they support/strongly support an increase while 51% oppose/strongly oppose. Democrats show very high levels of support (97% support/strongly support), followed by Independents (77% support/strongly support).

Paid sick leave for employees and the establishment of a paid family and medical leave program both have majority support across all partisan categories. On the former, Democrats lead with 92% support/strongly support, followed by Independents with 75% support, and Republicans with 68% support. Paid family and medical leave have support from 97% of Democrats, 79% of Independents and 70% of Republicans.

Constitutional Amendment on Redistricting: In light of mid-cycle redistricting in other states, such as Texas and California, Democrats in the General Assembly have proposed a constitutional amendment that would temporarily change the way Virginia draws district lines. We first ask whether Virginians support the current method used to draw district lines in the state, which includes an independent commission to draw maps every 10-years after the census. A majority of Virginians support the current method (63% to 27%); 9% don’t know. Still, a bare majority also support a temporary change that would allow the General Assembly to redraw district lines in response to other states redrawing lines outside the 10-year cycle (51% to 43%); 7% say they don’t know.

There are clear differences by partisan identification when it comes to views about the proposed changes to redistricting relative to the current method of redistricting. While strong majorities of Republicans (68%), Democrats (61%), and Independents (61%) support the current method of redistricting, Republican’s strongly oppose (61%) the proposed change. A bare majority (51%) of Independents support the proposed change, while Democratic support for the change is slightly higher (63%) than their support for the current method.

Virginia Gun Laws: The Virginia General Assembly is taking up a variety of gun-related measures; to get a sense of whether Virginians are generally supportive of changes to these laws we asked whether state gun laws should be made more strict, less strict, or kept as they are now. Half of Virginian’s say they should be more strict (50%), followed by 39% who say they should be kept as they are now, and 8% saying they should be less strict.

How the survey was conducted:

The results of this survey are based on 807 interviews of Virginia registered voters including 133 on landline and 674 on cell phone, conducted January 13-20, 2026. The margin of error for the whole survey is +/-4.4% at the 95% level of confidence. This means that if 50% of respondents indicate a topline view on an issue, we can be 95% confident that the population’s view on that issue is somewhere between 45.6% and 55.5%. The margin of error for subgroups may be higher. All error margins have been adjusted to account for the survey’s design effect, which is 1.6 in this survey. The design effect is a factor representing the survey’s deviation from a simple random sample and takes into account decreases in precision due to sample design and weighting procedures. In addition to sampling error, the other potential sources of error include non-response, question wording, and interviewer error. Percentages may not equal 100 due to rounding. Five callbacks were employed in the fielding process. Live calling was conducted by Dynata interviewers. The data reported here are weighted using an iterative (raked) weighting process on region, age, race, sex, and education to reflect as closely as possible Virginia’s registered voter population. Parameters for the weights used in this survey come from the 2020 Census and the 2023 and the 2024 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates.