The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, 1619.
Staunton is an independent city in the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,750. In Virginia, independent cities are separate jurisdictions from the counties that surround them, so the government offices of Augusta County are in Verona, which is contiguous to Staunton. Staunton is a principal city of the Staunton-Waynesboro Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2010 population of 118,502. Staunton is known for being the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th U.S. president, and as the home of Mary Baldwin University, historically a women's college. The city is also home to Stuart Hall, a private co-ed preparatory school, as well as the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind. It was the first city in the United States with a fully defined city manager system.
Robert Creigh Deeds is an American lawyer and politician serving as a member of the Senate of Virginia representing the 25th district since 2001. Previously, he was the Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Virginia in 2005 and Governor of Virginia in 2009. He was defeated in both of those races by Republican Bob McDonnell. Deeds lost by just 323 votes in 2005, but was defeated by a wide margin of over 17 percentage points in 2009. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1992 to 2001.
George Moffett Cochran IV was a Virginia lawyer, banker and legislator who later served as a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court. Cochran served part-time representing Staunton, Virginia in the Virginia General Assembly for nearly two decades, first as a delegate, then briefly as state senator. His opposition to the Byrd Organization's policy of Massive Resistance helped integrate Virginia's schools.
George Lincoln Barker is an American politician of the Democratic Party from the Commonwealth of Virginia. He served in the Senate of Virginia, representing the 39th district, made up of parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties, plus part of the City of Alexandria. He was first elected in November 2007.
Richard Lawrence Saslaw is an American politician who served as Majority Leader of the Senate of Virginia between 2020 – 2024, when he declined to run for reelection. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1976–80, then was elected to the Senate of Virginia. He represented the 35th district, made up of the city of Falls Church and portions of Fairfax County and the city of Alexandria.
Phillip P. Puckett is an American politician. A Democrat, he was elected to the Senate of Virginia in 1998 and resigned on June 9, 2014. He represented the 38th district, made up of five counties and parts of four others in the southwestern part of the state.
Ralph Shearer Northam is an American physician and politician who was the 73rd governor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022. A pediatric neurologist by occupation, he was an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1984 to 1992. Northam, a member of the Democratic Party, was the 40th lieutenant governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018 before winning the governorship against the Republican nominee Ed Gillespie in the 2017 election. Prohibited by the Virginia Constitution from running for a consecutive term, Northam left office in January 2022 and was succeeded by the Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Stephen Dwayne Newman is an American politician of the Republican Party. He served in the Virginia General Assembly from 1991 to 2024, first in the House (1991-1996) and then in the Senate of Virginia (1996–2024). In 2016, Newman became president pro tempore of the Senate of Virginia. However, in the 2019 Virginia Senate election, although Newman won re-election from his district, Democrats won the majority. On January 8, 2020, Louise Lucas, a senior Democratic senator succeeded Newman as president pro tempore.
Curry Carter was a Virginia Democratic politician from Staunton, Virginia.
Christopher T. Head is an American politician. A Republican, he currently serves in the Senate of Virginia, representing the 3rd district which includes all of Alleghany County, Botetourt County, Craig County, Rockbridge County, Buena Vista, Covington, Lexington, Staunton and Waynesboro, and parts of Augusta County and Roanoke County. He previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2012-2024, representing the 17th district, made up parts of Botetourt and Roanoke counties and the city of Roanoke, in the western part of the state.
The 2013 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 2013, to elect the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. The incumbent Lieutenant Governor, Republican Bill Bolling, had originally planned to run for Governor of Virginia in the 2013 gubernatorial election, but withdrew upon the entry of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
Cannabis in Virginia is legal for medical use and recreational use. The first medical marijuana dispensary opened in August 2020, and adult recreational use became legalized in July 2021.
The 2017 Virginia Attorney General election was held on November 7, 2017. The incumbent attorney general, Democrat Mark Herring, was expected to run for governor, but announced he would run for re-election instead. As only Herring and Republican John Adams qualified for their respective party primaries, the two automatically became their parties' nominees. In the general election, Herring defeated Adams to win a second term as Attorney General of Virginia.
Nicholas J. Freitas is an American politician and social media influencer. A Republican, he has been a member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2016. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2018, losing in the primary election to Corey Stewart. He was the Republican nominee in the 2020 election to represent Virginia's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, which he narrowly lost to Abigail Spanberger, the incumbent Democratic congresswoman. Before entering politics, he served in the United States Army.
The 2018 United States Senate election in Virginia took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia, concurrently with other elections to the U.S. Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who had been his party's unsuccessful nominee for vice president two years earlier, was re-elected to a second term in office, winning this seat by the largest margin since 1988. This was the first election since 1994 that anyone had been re-elected to this seat.
Debra H. Rodman is a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates. She was first elected in 2017, and represented the 73rd district comprising parts of Henrico County. Rodman is a member of the Democratic Party.
The 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2021, to elect the next governor of Virginia. The election was concurrent with other elections for Virginia state offices. Incumbent Democratic governor Ralph Northam was ineligible to run for re-election, as the Constitution of Virginia prohibits governors from serving consecutive terms. Businessman Glenn Youngkin won the Republican nomination at the party's May 8 convention, which was held in 37 polling locations across the state, and was officially declared the nominee on May 10. The Democratic Party held its primary election on June 8, which former governor Terry McAuliffe easily won.
The 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election will be held on November 4, 2025. Incumbent Republican governor Glenn Youngkin will be ineligible to run for re-election, as the Constitution of Virginia prohibits the state's governors from serving consecutive terms.
The 2023 Virginia Senate election was held on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, concurrently with elections for the Virginia House of Delegates, to elect senators to all 40 seats in the Senate of Virginia for the 163rd and 164th Virginia Assembly. Nomination primaries held through the Department of Elections were held June 20, 2023. These were the first elections held following redistricting as a result of the 2020 census. The Democrats retained control of the Senate.
