VAPLAN’s 2026 Virginia General Assembly Scorecard Is Out; Here’s How Members Stacked Up, Including Relative to Their Districts’ Partisan Leanings

The much-anticipated VAPLAN scorecard for the 2026 Virginia General Assembly session is now available. Great work as always to Cindy, both for putting together this scorecard and – just as importantly – keeping close track of what’s going on with the General Assembly AND informing the public. Thanks!

With that, here are a few things that jumped out at me (note: compare to the 2025 scorecard here). In looking at these, you can compare the State Senator’s or Delegate’s VAPLAN ranking with their district’s partisan lean, to see if they match up. In general, I’d expect to see a strong correlation between a member’s voting record and their district’s partisan lean, but in several cases (I’ve marked those in bold/green, there are significant deviations).

• Senate Democrats: Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy went from #12 last year to #1 this year (note: she represents a 63.0% Kamala Harris district); Sen. Elizabeth Bennett Parker went from #1 in the House of Delegates last year to #2 in the Senate this year (in a 76.2% Kamala Harris seat);  Sen. Angelia Williams Graves went from #16 last year to #3 this year (in a 72.4% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Lamont Bagby stayed near the top of the ranking (#1 last year, 4 this year – in an 80.6% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg fell from #5 last year to #21 this year (in a 57.9% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Jeremy McPike stayed near the bottom of the ranking among the 21 Democrats (#21 last year, #20 this year, despite representing a deep-blue, 57% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Mamie Locke also stayed near the bottom of the ranking among the 21 Democrats (#18 last year, #19 this year, despite representing a deep-blue, 68.7% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Dave Marsden also stayed near the bottom of the ranking among the 21 Democrats (#19 last year, #18 this year, despite representing a deep-blue, 64.9% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Louise Lucas jumped from #20 last year to #13 this year (she represents a 62.2% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Creigh Deeds fell from #4 last year to #15 this year (in a 61.7% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Danica Roem fell from #3 last year to #11 this year (in a 53.1% Kamala Harris seat); Sen. Scott Surovell stayed in the middle of the pack, roughly (#12 last year, #15 this year – in a 68.0% Kamala Harris seat), etc. What changed between the last session and this session? Not sure, but in general, I’d expect to see a relatively progressive or relatively conservative State Senator stay fairly consistent from year to year, maybe move up or down a few spots, but no big movements…
• Senate Republicans: The worst of the worst, pretty much, in terms of being anti-progressive were Tammy Mulchi (#39), Christie New Craig (#39), Christopher Head (#38), Timmy French (#36), Emily Jordan (#36), Mark Peake (#34), Mark Obenshain (#34), Ryan McDougle (#33), Bill DeSteph (#32), Tara Durant (#31) and Glen Sturtevant (#30). Of those, several were in deep-red districts, but others were in competitive/purple seats — Emily Jordan (in a 51.4% Kamala Harris seat), Bill DeSteph (in a 47.3% Kamala Harris seat), Tara Durant (in a 49.5% Kamala Harris seat), and Glen Sturtevant (in a 48.9% Kamala Harris seat). Doesn’t seem very wise to vote hard right in “purple” districts, but maybe they know something the rest of us don’t? LOL
• Veteran House Democrats: Del. Rae Cousins went from #7 last year to #1 this year (note that she represents an 88.0% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Rozia Henson was ranked #2 both this year and last year (representing a 64.1% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Patrick Hope jumped 42 spots, from #45 last year to #3 this year (in a 78.8% Kamala Harris seat); Del. JJ Singh fell sharply, from #8 last year to #61 this year (in a 59.0% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Laura Jane Cohen also fell sharply, from #8 last year to #57 this year (in a 63.5% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Rodney Willett fell from #11 last year to #53 this year (in a 57.5% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Briana Sewell fell from #18 last year to #63 this year (in a 59.5% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Luke Torian jumped from #50 last year to #18 this year (in a 61.3% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Adele McClure fell from #4 last year to #29 this year  (in a 76.1% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Betsy Carr jumped from #34 last year to #5 this year (in a 76.0% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Michael Feggans fell from #18 last year to #45 this year (in a 53.1% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Jeion Ward jumped from #49 last year to #16 this year (in a 74.8% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Sam Rasoul fell from #28 last year to #41 this year (in a 61.2% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Rip Sullivan stayed about the same, falling slightly from #42 last year to #44 this year (in a 64.6% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Karrie Delaney fell from #37 last year to #59 this year (in a 60.8% Kamala Harris seat); etc.
• Freshman House Democrats: Del. Garrett McGuire’s ranked #45 in his first year in the House of Delegates (in a 69.7% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Mark Downey ranked #20 (in a 48.4% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Gretchen Bulova ranked #48 (in a 66.0% Kamala Harris seat); Del. May Nivar ranked #53 (in a 53.5% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Jessica Anderson ranked #57 (in a 51.5% Kamala Harris seat); Del. John McAuliff ranked #64 (in a 48.4% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Kirk McPike ranked #5 (in a 78.2% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Charlie Schmidt ranked #20 (in a 74.1% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Lily Franklin ranked #59 (in a 46.7% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Leslie Mehta ranked #23 (in a 49.3% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Stacey Carroll ranked #23 (in a 48.0% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Elizabeth Guzman ranked #29 (in a 49.0% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Virgil Thornton ranked #29 (in a 49.6% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Lindsey Dougherty ranked #36 (in a 52.3% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Margaret Franklin ranked #36 (in a 66.2% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Nicole Cole ranked #36 (in a 46.8% Kamala Harris seat); Del. Kimberly Pope Adams ranked #48 (in a 51.4% Kamala Harris seat)…
• House Republicans: If you’ve watched the House of Delegates at all this session, you probably will NOT be surprised to learn that far-right Del. Tom Garrett ranks dead last on the 2026 VAPLAN progressive scorecard; the guy’s really “out there”! Also not surprising – equally “out there” Del. Tim Griffin at #97; Del. Philip Scott at #98; Trump-worshipping/MAGA cultist Del. Tommy Wright at #94, etc. Kinda surprisingly, Del. Eric Phillips (in a 63.5% Donald Trump district) ranks as the least-right-wing Republican (although he’s still quite conservative) in the House of Delegates. As for House GOP Leader Terry Kilgore, who represents an 83.1% (!) Trump seat, he ranks #74.

So what jumps out at you? There’s a lot of information here, so definitely check it out.

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Once again this year, VAPLAN completes the legislative session with our scorecard, ranking legislators from most “progressive” to least, across a wide array of policy areas. We score votes on dozens of bills, both in committees and on the floor, to determine the ranking. Although we try hard to be as unbiased as possible, like any ranking of this sort, It’s more art than science. At the least, the methodology has been fairly consistent for the past nine years since we began. So without further ado, here it is! (Full spreadsheet here.)