Election 2026: Wittman faces Taylor in contentious VA-01 race

Good morning from the Mercury.

By Shannon Heckt

As early voting for the 2026 midterm elections ramps up in Virginia, the commonwealth's 1st Congressional District, where Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman is battling Democratic challenger Shannon Taylor, has been thrust into the spotlight as one of the most consequential races in the country, with the potential to shift control of the federal legislature. 

The largest portions of VA-01’s voter population are centered in Henrico, Chesterfield, Hanover, and James City counties. The district stretches from Westmoreland to Newport News and hooks around Richmond to the west.  

By Nathaniel Cline

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has reached an agreement with Virginia Beach City Public Schools, after finding the division violated federal laws involving inadequate investigations and record-keeping of sexual misconduct reports..

Results of the investigation come after the Office for Civil Rights launched a national K-12 initiative in July to enforce Title IX, a statute barring sex-based discrimination at federally-funded schools, and to protect students from sexual misconduct while providing every child with a safe learning environment.

By Ivy Main

Virginians’ attitudes towards data centers have shifted rapidly in just a few years. Once seen as a relatively benign form of development that contributed to local coffers without harming the broader community, today data centers face united opposition. 

Polling this spring showed just 35% of Virginia voters would be comfortable with construction of a new data center near them, a plunge from 69% just three years ago.  

This is the rare issue that unites voters of all political stripes – mostly against their own elected leaders, since the great majority of both Republicans and Democrats continue to support the data center buildout. The about-face has clearly taken elected leaders by surprise. I wonder if they actually understand it.  

By Virginia Mercury staff

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