Virginia Gov. Spanberger housing affordability orders spark GOP criticism

Virginia’s new Gov. Abigail Spanberger campaigned as a pragmatic centrist, while critics said her first-day actions depict four very different years the Old Dominion is about to experience.

In a flurry of executive orders after her inauguration, the Democrat overruled the former governor. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 287(g) established cooperation with ICE and built on broad affordability initiatives, including revisions to housing regulations that align with progressive approaches to zoning.

Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Cumberland Gap, saw his slim 2025 minority reduced to 36-64 after the November surge election that Spanberger also won.

Asked about one of Spanberger’s key executive orders, establishing a “process for housing affordability,” and how critics have warned about what that might mean for intervention in local zoning issues, Kilgore said that ultimately, “government is not always the answer.”

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Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger at her inauguration. (Steve Helber/AP Photo)

“What you have to do is allow the free market to come in and build houses and get a rate of return. But a lot of the bills we’re passing here now; a landlord-tenant relationship [bill] I’ll keep people if they don’t pay their rent [have] more time to pay their rent, it gives them all kinds of options,” Kilgore said.

“When people invest money and lose money because they can’t get people out because they’re not paying their rent, they’re not going to invest in the Commonwealth.”

He criticized how Spanberger’s orders often created commissions or panels, remarking: “Virginia needs affordability now; This is what the campaign was about. »

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“We are ready, as a Republican caucus, to [step] Right now. There are things we can do to make Virginia more affordable… We don’t need a study. Let’s work on it now and do what we can. »

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger to find out if his executive order could potentially lead to a departure from local zoning policies – and for more clarity on his definition of “affordable” in terms of housing, and its 287(g) overturn.

Spanberger’s order said she would “support, encourage, coordinate and innovate using the full powers of state government in partnership with local governments and the nonprofit and private sectors to create practical solutions that meet the housing needs of Virginians.”

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Del Terry Kilgore. (Douglas Graham/Getty Images)

Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, told Fox News Digital that the wave of orders, including one on housing affordability, is “exactly what we said would happen.”

“Governor Spanberger campaigned as a pragmatic centrist, but from the start she was a progressive disguised as a moderate.”

“His ‘affordable housing’ order raises serious questions about whether this administration will override local zoning authority throughout the Commonwealth. Virginians have been sold a facade of practical solutions to make the Commonwealth affordable – instead, they are masquerading as housing policy for Zohran Mamdani-style collectivism.”

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Another major concern among Virginia Republicans is the push by Spanberger and Senate Leader L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, to redraw the state’s congressional map in a way that leaves just one GOP-held seat — represented by Rep. Morgan Griffith — in an otherwise purple state.

“The Democrats are seeking to redraw our lines in the Commonwealth of Virginia to basically ‘Fairfax’ the rest of Virginia. That’s what I call it because all the lines are drawn across the Commonwealth to make it a 10-1 Democratic majority in Virginia.”

He said Democrats’ proposed lines don’t connect “communities of interest,” noting that Washington’s suburbs have little in common with the Shenandoah Valley and the like.

“[Democrats] say it is because there is a threat to democracy. I don’t know what the threat is to democracy or who threatens anyone about democracy. So it’s just a power grab,” he joked.

Republicans also suggested the pivot to the left was two-pronged, as Kilgore’s office shared a series of what they dubbed the “bad bills” that the new Legislature has already crafted for Spanberger.

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Several of them create new sales taxes, including 4.3% on Amazon and food delivery services, an additional 3.8% investment tax on top of the state income tax, which critics say would needlessly harm low- and mid-level investors, and a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.

Another so-called “bad bill” would extend the period for accepting mail-in ballots, ban hand counting of ballots, allow Internet voting, reduce penalties for grand theft and enact several Second Amendment taxes.

Kilgore said housing affordability also includes energy costs, adding that Spanberger has indicated she will re-enter Virginia into RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. He pointed out that another Democratic-led energy state — Pennsylvania — just withdrew from the deal.

However, Kilgore also agrees with observers who warn that Democrats’ rapid shift in Spanberger and Richmond from the Youngkin years could lead to voter backlash in the midterms.

Senator Mark Warner, himself a former Democratic governor, is up for re-election, as are all congressmen, delegates and state senators.

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“Virginia is not a liberal state. A lot of people think, ‘Oh, [Democrats] “We got their trifecta now,” but…we’re a moderate state,” Kilgore said.

“We’re already looking at these bills – the pendulum is swinging back. I’ve been in politics a long time and I’ve seen the pendulum swing back and forth in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I’m sure we will swing back.”

Kiera McDonald of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.