See below for some video and a few highlights from DLCC’s 2025 Pre-Election Zoom press conference, which just concluded a few minutes ago.
DLCC President Heather Williams:
“These races in 2025 are really a pulse check on voters ahead of the 2026 midterms. Results next week will have high stakes on everything from responding to the reckless policies coming out of the Trump administration to the redistricting fight playing out across the country…Virginia is really a proof point of our strategy to build up strong programs and invest in building expanding Democratic power. The full House of Delegates is up and if Democrats hold the majority, it will be the first time they have successfully defended a Virginia House majority in nearly 30 years. As as many of you will recall, we won this as a one-seat majority in 2023. And this year, we’re working to expand that majority and could establish a Democratic trifecta on election night. DLCC has worked with leaders and partners on the ground to build strong caucus programs cycle over cycle. And we’re now seeing the fruits of this labor. And it’s worth noting sort of big picture that in just a decade, DLCC’s help has brought House Democrats from a near super minority to an expanding majority opportunity in this 2025 election.”
DLCC Political Director Jeremy Jansen:
“…Starting in Virginia, like Heather mentioned, Virginia Democrats were nearly in a super minority not so long ago. And if we are able to hold on to our one seat majority in this chamber, it’ll be the first time we’ve successfully defended that majority back to back in nearly 30 years. We feel really confident about being able to do this next next week. The caucus has broken fundraising records. They’ve really built a truly powerhouse program in this state. And again, we feel really good going into next week that we’re going to be able to hold on to this majority for the first time in nearly 30 years.”
Heather Williams on redistricting:
“Legislative Democrats need to keep all of their options open, including using their legislative power to pursue these midcycle these midcycle changes to these maps. This is not a fight that we wanted, just to be very clear here. But this certainly is not something that can go unresponded to. So I think we’ve got sort of a multi-tier strategy here. One, evaluate the opportunities that exist today. And two, most critically for now and the future, win more power for Democrats in the states. You know, we’ve we’ve been talking about this forever. We’ve built an entire strategy that took like a slight slight turn, if you will, as this midcycle redistricting happened, but we’ve been looking with an eye towards redistricting the whole time, recognizing what an important moment to power this was, and what an important opportunity it is for Democrats who, you know, ensure that we’ve got strong representation…” [Williams went on to say that Democrats can’t just let Republicans redistrict their way to control of the US House without fighting back]
More from Heather Williams on redistricting:
“I will say the first thing about the redistricting initiative is we worked alongside this program and Speaker Scott, both when he was Speaker and when he was not Speaker, to put Democrats in a position of power in this legislative chamber and in this state. And the reason why we can have this conversation about a redistricting push is because Democrats have power in the state legislature. And I think it’s notable here that we do not have the governor. The governor is currently a Republican. But Democrats in the legislature still have a real opportunity to move forward a redistricting push and to evaluate their their opportunities. And that’s really important to keep in mind as we think about all of the future redistricting fights, both the near-term and sort of the midterm, if you will. So that’s sort of our our biggest role here. And then specifically on the program this year, you know Speaker Scott’s done an incredible job leading this campaign program this year. We’ve invested multiple seven figures into the program. I think equally importantly, we’ve been a partner alongside this from the beginning, helping to ensure that the infrastructure in the state up and down the ballot was really strong, that there were good candidate recruitment, good targeting, that all of these candidates were in their communities talking to voters, because that is what they do best and that is a job that only they can do. So I know this program’s broken records both on the fundraising side, and frankly across the board. And we’re just really proud of of what they’ve built here.”
