Sal Orlando, Assistant News Editor
Women held 42 of the 100 seats in Virginia’s House of Delegates this session — a record number — and they are championing transformative policies ranging from a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive freedom to improving health care and strengthening workers’ rights.
The 2026 General Assembly session saw the largest number of female delegates in history, with eight new seats being claimed by women since last year’s regular session.
The Richmond delegation includes lawmakers as young as progressive newcomer Del. Rae Cousins, 46, and as old as nine-term Del. Betsy Carr.
Democratic women currently hold 37 seats — over half of their party’s House majority. There are more Democratic women than total Republicans in the chamber.
Of the 13 House seats that flipped in the 2025 election, 10 were by Democratic women, and more than half of them were by women of color.
Richmond area delegates Lindsey Dougherty, D-Chesterfield, May Nivar, D-Henrico, Leslie Mehta, D-Chesterfield and Kimberly Pope Adams, D-Petersburg won four of the 13 flipped seats — with Nivar and Mehta defeating male incumbents.
Mehta said during the snowstorm in late January, she and other delegates brought their children to the powerful, historic House floor, and she introduced her daughter to other female legislators.
“I wasn’t even thinking about the power and the gravitas that comes with that, but my little girl responded to my chief of staff when she saw others kind of walking around the building, she said, ‘Oh, boys can be delegates too,’” Mehta said.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi and Congressional Rep. Jennifer McClellan all supported Mehta throughout her campaign. She believes that mentorship is why the House of Delegates has seen an increase in female membership.
“These women who have paved the way are not just doing their thing, they’re doing it in amazing ways — but they’re also making sure that there are other women who are coming behind them to do good work too,” Mehta said. “I think a lot of it is about the women who are already there helping to support women who are coming behind.”
Del. Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, is the longest tenured current legislator in the House of Delegates, serving from 1982-1985, then 1996 to now, following her resignation in 1985 to serve as Virginia’s Secretary of Transportation and Public Safety.
Watts introduced several successful bills throughout her tenure in the support of women, dating back to 1997 when she passed a law establishing criminal penalties for possession, distribution or administration of Rohypnol, the “date-rape” drug, as a Schedule I drug.
That same year she introduced the successful House Bill 1044, which allowed bail to be denied to people charged with sexual offenses who could carry a life sentence for a second conviction.
The first female delegates in state history were elected in 1924 — four years after the ratification of the 19th amendment — with Del. Sarah Fain representing Norfolk and Del. Helen Henderson representing Buchanan and Russell Counties. Between 1924-1933, six women served in the House of Delegates.
“That said, women throughout the nation continue to face opposition to their political participation, including in Virginia,” stated VCU history professor Brian Daugherity. “For instance, the Virginia General Assembly voted against ratifying the 19th Amendment in 1920, and the Commonwealth of Virginia did not ratify the amendment until 1952.”
Fain was the chair of the Committee on Schools and Colleges in her third term as a delegate, and helped pass an important education reform bill.
What lawmakers did this year
House Bill 6, patroned by Del. Marcia Price, D-Newport News, passed this session and could mandate a future referendum to voters on whether or not to establish the right to acquire contraceptives and engage in contraception.
“I know for me personally, I’ve benefited from access to contraception, I’ve had miscarriages and had to, you know, be part of the health care system as a result of that,” Mehta said.
Mehta introduced House Bill 962, which would require employers to provide a “written good faith estimate” of a new employee’s work schedule. The bill did not make it out of committee, but Mehta hopes to tweak it and re-introduce it next year.
“For women in particular, I think that’s incredibly important, as we talk about making sure that there are child care options and being able to set things up quickly,” Mehta said.
House Bill 18, patroned by Del. Adele McClure, D-Arlington, would provide matching funds to encourage employers to contribute to child care costs of their employees. It passed both chambers and is awaiting Spanberger’s signature.
Also heading to the governor’s desk is House Bill 425, introduced by Del. Destiny LeVere Bolling, D-Henrico, granting pregnancy patients who are “high risk” or 35 years or older reimbursement for remote patient monitoring services through 12 months postpartum. Previously, reimbursement was only granted to patients who are “high risk.”
“Women are just tired of being sidelined,” Mehta said. “There are so many great pieces of legislation that have come through recently, things like abortion access, menopause, postpartum care, those kinds of things are things that would not be possible for these types of legislation had it not been for women who just got fed up with what was going on and wanting to be part of the conversation.”