1/23/26 - Democrats eye April 21 for redistricting ballot
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34 segmentsYou're listening to the VPM Daily Newscast, the recap of today's top stories in central Virginia. From the VPM Newsroom in Richmond, I'm Kim Strother. Democrats want Virginia voters to weigh in April 21st on a constitutional amendment about redistricting. Last week, the legislature approved a draft change to the Virginia Constitution that would allow lawmakers limited authority to go around the redistricting commission. VPM News's Jad Khalil reports Democrats are using the legislative backdoor to schedule the ballot. Virginia legislators are using the current budget to set the date on April 21st. Under state law, changes to the spending plan go into effect immediately. Usually for a law to go on the books immediately, a bill needs a line saying so and support from four-fifths of the House of Delegates and State Senate. Having the amendment okayed by voters by April is necessary for a tight electoral calendar during a federal midterms year. The timing allows for new maps to be drawn, primary candidates to run for party nominations, and then the general election. Plus, there's 45 days of early voting in Virginia. Chad Khalil, VPM News. Governor Abigail Spanberger declared a state of emergency yesterday ahead of a forecasted major winter storm this weekend. We are expecting large amounts of snowfall, freezing rain, and sleet. And we also expect Virginia will experience dangerously low temperatures, power outages, and unpredictable road conditions. Abigail Spanberger and the Department of Emergency Management have five key takeaways for Virginians to keep in mind. Stay off the roads when the snow starts. Be prepared for power outages. Be prepared for freezing temperatures over the next week. Use generators safely and check on neighbors, older adults, and medically dependent residents. Road crews will be fully deployed statewide, but officials say some roads likely won't be cleared until midweek. As Richmonders also prepare for this weekend's winter storm, Mayor Danny Avulis says he's fully confident the city will not have a repeat of the water crisis. Avulis said yesterday, departments are already in emergency preparedness mode from pre-treating roads and expanding shelter capacity to ensuring staff are on site at the Douglasdale Road water treatment plant. We are as prepared as we possibly could be for another weather event, and I'm real full confidence that we'll make it through this. Richmond's mayor is asking residents to register for ready alerts to receive the latest updates. To register, just text RVA Ready to 888-777. On the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump's second inauguration, more than 100 Richmond high schoolers walked out to protest his administration's immigration policies. VPM news reporter Kairos Manzanaris has more. For Nestor Rafael Gallardo Lopez and many others at Huguenot High, a predominantly Latino school, the march was personal, a stand against policies they say continue to cast a shadow over their lives.
It scares me. I'm afraid every day of something happening. I walk home from the bus not knowing if my mother is going to be home. And... It's terrifying. Tuesday's walkout took place against a backdrop of intensifying immigration enforcement in Virginia. Recent records showed that ICE arrests in the state surge to over 7,000 in 2025, nearly triple prior annual totals. Ever since the new administration has come in, there has been an air of just tension. The students of the school. feel terrorized. Richmond's non-cooperation stance does not shield residents from federal immigration enforcement. Kresbanzanaris, VPN News. Governor Abigail Spanberger wasted no time signing a handful of executive orders during her first week in office. Many tied to her affordable Virginia agenda. VPM news's Keras Manzanaris interviewed Abigail Spanberger in December before she was inaugurated as Virginia's first woman governor on January 17th. There she talked about how her administration will measure success and the promises she made to voters. From the VPM newsroom in Richmond, I'm Kairas Manzanaris. Governor Abigail Spanberger wasted no time signing a handful of executive orders during her first week in office, many tied to her affordable Virginia agenda. I interviewed the governor in December before she was inaugurated on January 17th. She talked about how her administration will measure success in the promises she made to voters. Along the campaign, I talked about issues of affordability. the priority of strengthening our public schools, and overall just strengthening our communities. And so what my focus will be will be a relentless focus on taking every action possible through the administration, through executive action, and certainly in working directly with the legislature, to move policies and initiatives forward that will impact people's lives, bring down costs, and contend with some of the root causes of cost increases, housing supply, and constructions within the housing market that have driven up costs, lack of enough energy generation, and certainly going straight at the challenge of health care costs. continuing to go up and you know there will be challenges certainly in light of the bills and the actions taken on Capitol Hill Virginia's going to have to
to be nimble and reactive. But I will be laser focused on all that I'm doing as it relates to lowering costs and delivering on that promise of really hearing people and then being responsive. When it comes to the state affordability, you know, you've said that you want to take executive action. Why do you think that's the best approach and what gaps do you think? can't wait for the General Assembly to solve. Certainly, much of what we will move forward on will be through legislation in partnership with the General Assembly. In mid-December, I rolled out the affordability agenda and actual pieces of legislation that I want to move forward during this session. But importantly, the lens of affordability from how is it that the Secretary of Commerce and Trade is looking at bringing business and investment to Virginia, how can that person play a role and have a lens of how can I be an advocate for increasing housing supply or increasing access to child care or increasing supply of child care providers? How can the Secretary of Health and Human Resources work in tandem with the Secretary of Education to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the future as it relates to a healthcare workforce? These are the challenges, not enough housing, not enough healthcare providers, not enough childcare slots that ultimately drive up costs. And so through executive action, through ensuring that every person within my administration is, you know, thinking on a daily basis, what else could I do or could the departments... and agencies I oversee do to bring down costs or to make life just a little bit easier for people. That, in addition to legislative action, I think, is how you keep a relentless focus on affordability. Can you tell us about some of that legislative priorities that you've put together? What are some of those top three that you're really looking at? So they fall into the same three categories that anybody who's heard me along the campaign trail would recognize, housing, health care, energy. In the energy space, we need to increase generation, but we also need to leverage other tools such as battery storage. so that we are leveling out demand on the grid, ultimately to the benefit of the rate payer. So we've got a bill, in addition to other bills, focused on energy affordability, ensuring that we're expanding battery storage is a priority. As it relates to prescription drug pricing under the larger health care umbrella, really reforming the middlemen entities and their ability to drive up costs, specifically pharmacy benefit managers, won't have the immediate impact. of lowering costs, but certainly as we're working to bring greater transparency and ultimately pull out some of the control that those middle-end entities have, the end results and intention is to drive down costs. And then on housing, we have a number of bills focused on increasing housing supply and also ensuring that housing that is in affordable housing remains in affordable housing and isn't, as we have seen in many places across Virginia, bought up, sold off, and that affordable
housing ceases to be affordable not just impacting you know the former residents of that community but also driving up costs across the larger community outside of that particular complex or housing unit as you reflect on these priorities that you've set forth where do you think you know you'll gain the most bipartisan support and where do you think you'll get the most you know, tough negotiations where you're going to have to do a little bit more of that that legwork to really get that legislation across. I think on some of the health care priorities and the bills that we're moving forward with on health care, I think many of them we should see will be quite bipartisan in part because some of the most hardest hit. communities as it relates to potential hospital closures, lack of provider access, the real impact on small or community-based pharmacies, many of those impacts are felt in more rural communities and communities that might have a Republican legislator representing them, so I think there's great area for bipartisanship there. Certainly, as it relates to housing, you know, I've been very clear I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all, and so I expect that some of my bills will be very bipartisan. Others might be regional in who supports them. And in a similar case on energy, I think that there's some places where there will be regional agreement, some places where there might be better party alignment. But the overall principle of lowering costs and addressing the real challenges, you look at where the highest rate spikes have occurred in the energy space, and it's... far southwest Virginia. The General Assembly will take up a lot of your time and energy, but what else are you looking forward to in those first 100 days? I'm really looking forward to getting engaged with state agencies and with the secretariates. Within our state agencies, there's so much work that drives the day-to-day experience of Virginians. And so ensuring that every place where we can improve that user experience, whether you're an individual who is getting veterans benefits. and working directly with the state through DVS or whether you are someone who qualifies for Medicaid and are going through that process of, you know, verifying who you are in your eligibility, whether you're trying to renew your license through the DMV. The engagement that citizens have with our state government, it happens everywhere all around us. And so I look forward to ensuring that the cabinet secretaries that I've appointed hit the ground running and that we do everything that we can to really strengthen the work and the focus of our secretariats and our state agencies. That was Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger speaking back in December. To read, watch, or listen to our interviews with other newly elected statewide officers go to vpm.org. This is VPM News. This has been the VPM Daily Newscast.
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