Richmond, Virginia—At 11:15 PM on the night of the Virginia law-mandated deadline for gubernatorial action on bills passed by the General Assembly, the governor had only vetoed eleven bills. By morning, dozens of bills had fallen to his veto pen, including many long-hoped for pieces of legislation designed to make life easier for working families, help ameliorate the affordable housing crisis, provide jobs in the Commonwealth, keep Virginia residents safe, and create a more just playing field for working people. 

“Paid family and medical leave, raising the minimum wage, banning assault weapons, protecting our environment, and helping families access housing they can afford are basic, commonsense policies that improve lives and protect hard working families. Governor Youngkin’s decision to veto these and dozens of other critical bills is not just disappointing—it’s disgraceful,” said LaTwyla Mathias, Executive Director of Progress Virginia. “Governor Youngkin’s massive wealth may shield him from hardship, but it also blinds him to the realities Virginians face every day. With a single stroke of his pen, he’s chosen to put political ambition and wealthy special interests ahead of the people he was elected to serve. While he turns his back on hardworking people in our community in favor of his mega-wealthy friends, we will not back down. We will keep fighting—for dignity, safety, and opportunity for every member of our community.”

Some of the lowlights from Youngkin’s veto spree:

• HB2531, a bill to provide a system of paid family and medical leave for working families in Virginia at no cost to the state budget. In Governor Youngkin’s veto statement, he expressed a desire to make the Virginia economy more like Arkansas or Tennessee, which Oxfam rates the 39th and 47th worst states for workers, respectively. 76% of Virginians currently have no access to paid leave and 61% of Virginians cannot even access unpaid leave. 
• HB1607, a ban on assault weapons. Of the 58 mass shootings in the US this year, the vast majority have involved firearms defined by this bill as an assault weapon.
• Besides the assault weapons ban, Governor Youngkin, who routinely travels with a phalanx of state-funded and private security, also vetoed a variety of low-impact sensible gun regulations, including standards of responsible conduct for gun manufacturers, creating a center that studies how to prevent gun violence, including trigger locks as part of the purchase of a gun, not allowing people convicted of hate crimes to buy guns, and closing the “boyfriend loophole” that allows people convicted of stalking or domestic abusers to buy guns as long as they are not married to their victims. 
• Bills to raise the minimum wage from $12.41/hr to $15/hr. and to overturn the Jim Crow-era exemptions that prevent farm laborers from accessing basic minimum wage protections. There is currently no region in Virginia where a worker can cover the cost of housing plus ordinary costs of living for $12.00 an hour: in Tazewell, the least expensive place to live in Virginia, a worker would have to earn $14.55 an hour to cover their costs. The Governor is a multi-millionaire who lives on a  30-acre ranch in the wealthy DC suburb of Great Falls, for which he receives a 95% tax break on the horse farm at his mansion by claiming a tax exemption meant for struggling small farmers. 
• Bills to bring jobs in offshore wind energy to Hampton Roads, develop electric vehicle charging locations in rural areas, and reduce the cost of energy by weatherizing homes for low-income families. 
• Bills to punish renters and protect slumlords, including a bill allowing localities to pursue landlords for renting homes that pose a hazard to tenants, a bill that would allow renters to put rent in an escrow account if their landlord is in material noncompliance, and requiring landlords to keep mobile home parks clean, safe and habitable. Governor Younkin is the former CEO of the Carlyle Group, which has a long track record of buying up affordable housing and senior living facilities and replacing them with so-called “luxury facilities” while spending vast amounts of money to lobby against affordable housing. 
• A bill requiring places that sell alcohol to also provide free water to patrons.