A new year typically brings growth and opportunities. But not in Virginia.

Since last November, the winds in the commonwealth have carried a heavy weight. Elections have consequences, and just a few days into Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s reign, Virginians are reaping the fruit of their ballot-box decisions. This is no longer a warning.

Now that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s watch has ended, that progress is under attack. In just weeks, a newly emboldened Democrat majority has moved to drain the budget surplus by expanding costly social programs while imposing unnecessary tax hikes on middle- and lower-class Virginians. Virginians are experiencing a swift, calculated wave of anti-business, anti-family and un-American policies that will irreparably decimate everything that makes Virginia great.

We Virginians were spoiled under Youngkin’s administration. Over the past four years, Youngkin’s watchful eye prevented the Democrat majority in the Virginia legislature from leading the commonwealth down a destructive path.

VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS SEEK DOZENS OF NEW TAX HIKES, INCLUDING ON DOG WALKING AND DRY CLEANING

Thanks to his leadership, Virginia is stronger than ever. Our state is experiencing record revenues, record tax relief and record investment. Virginia’s general revenue has grown by 5.2% in the past year, with $9 billion in tax relief, $156 billion in capital investments and a $2.7 billion budget surplus. Youngkin left Virginia better than he found it, bringing our state to new heights. But the higher you climb, the harder you fall.

Now that Youngkin’s watch has ended, that progress is under attack. In just weeks, a newly emboldened Democrat majority has moved to drain the budget surplus by expanding costly social programs while imposing unnecessary tax hikes on middle- and lower-class Virginians.

These policies will only make life less affordable while creating new barriers to entry for businesses, forcing Virginians to absorb the rising cost of living or leave the commonwealth behind.

Democrats are advancing a sweeping tax agenda that will make everyday life more expensive for working Virginians. For Virginia Democrats, “affordability” means imposing new taxes on dog grooming, counseling, vehicle and home repairs, dry cleaning, hosting events and even owning electric leaf blowers and landscaping equipment. Their proposals would also authorize new local sales taxes and impose a delivery tax on services like Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx and UPS, raising costs for families while offering nothing but a larger, more intrusive government.

VMI CADETS FIGHT BACK AS VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS THREATEN TO CLOSE HISTORIC MILITARY COLLEGE

While families are working day and night to make ends meet, Virginia Democrats are rewarding themselves. Their budget proposal includes an average 209% pay raise for state legislators, insulating politicians from economic reality as they repeal Virginia’s right-to-work law and mandate a $15 minimum wage. Together, these policies will drive up labor costs, eliminate jobs and leave workers with fewer opportunities.

At the same time, Democrats are pursuing an aggressive assault on Virginians’ Second Amendment rights. Their bills would impose an unprecedented tax on firearms and ammunition, layer on burdensome storage mandates and enact sweeping bans on both open and concealed carry in wide swaths of the commonwealth. These policies will not deter criminals. They will make it harder for law-abiding Virginians to protect themselves and their families.

Their transgressions do not stop there. Virginia Democrats are actively working to rewrite Virginia’s constitution.

VIRGINIA JUDGE VOIDS REDISTRICTING PUSH, RULES LAWMAKERS OVERSTEPPED AUTHORITY

Both the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates, despite Republicans’ vociferous opposition, voted to approve constitutional amendments that allow abortion on demand up to birth and gerrymander Virginia’s congressional districts to cheat their way to Democrat dominance for years to come. Despite recent defeats in lower courts, Democrats vow to continue disregarding procedural restraints in their pursuit of power at the expense of Virginia’s values.

In just weeks, a newly emboldened Democrat majority has moved to drain the budget surplus by expanding costly social programs while imposing unnecessary tax hikes on middle- and lower-class Virginians.

Nationwide, we’ve witnessed an exodus from California and New York City caused by radical left-wing policies, the same model that Spanberger seeks to emulate. She looks to California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani for inspiration but refuses to accept the repercussions of their policies, because she will never have to experience them.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

 It is the people of our great commonwealth who will carry that burden.

Spanberger and Virginia Democrats do not seek to implement commonsense policies that improve Virginians’ lives. As we have already seen in California and New York, their agenda will increase costs, undermine job growth, force families to relocate, dissuade businesses and protect criminals.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Through constitutional amendments, they will consolidate political control until the Californication of Virginia is complete.

The choices being made today will shape Virginia’s economy, freedoms and competitiveness for decades to come. The consequences are not theoretical; they are real, unfolding now, and will be felt by families, workers, and businesses across the commonwealth.

NASA announced Tuesday that it’s pushing the launch of its Artemis II moon mission to March after finding fuel leaks during testing this week. 

The 10-day crewed mission is aimed at carrying astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The mission is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket the agency has ever built. 

“NASA concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a team out to the launch pad to closeout [the] Orion [spacecraft], and safely draining the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify any issues and resolve them before attempting a launch,” NASA said. 

“Engineers pushed through several challenges during the two-day test and met many of the planned objectives. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test,” it added.

NASA PLANS TO RETURN HUMANS TO DEEP SPACE AFTER OVER 50 YEARS WITH ARTEMIS II MOON MISSION

NASA said earlier this morning that, “The Artemis II wet dress rehearsal countdown was terminated at the T-5:15 minute mark due to a liquid hydrogen leak at the interface of the tail service mast umbilical, which had experienced high concentrations of liquid hydrogen earlier in the countdown, as well.” 

“Moving off a February launch window also means the Artemis II astronauts will be released from quarantine, which they entered in Houston on Jan. 21,” according to NASA. “As a result, they will not travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Tuesday as tentatively planned. Crew will enter quarantine again about two weeks out from the next targeted launch opportunity.” 

The agency gave no indication of an official launch target in March, saying teams need to first “fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing.” Before Tuesday’s postponement, the earliest NASA could have launched commander Reid Wiseman and his crew to the moon was no sooner than Sunday. 

NASA RESEARCH PLANE LANDS ON BELLY, SENDING SPARKS FLYING, AFTER ‘MECHANICAL ISSUE’

Launch controllers Monday began loading the 322-foot rocket with super-cold hydrogen and oxygen at midday. More than 700,000 gallons had to flow into the tanks and remain on board for several hours, mimicking the final stages of an actual countdown. 

But excessive hydrogen quickly built up near the bottom of the rocket. Hydrogen loading was halted at least twice as the launch team scrambled to work around the problem using techniques developed during the previous Space Launch System countdown in 2022. That first test flight was plagued by hydrogen leaks before finally soaring without a crew. 

Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I mission and will serve as a critical test of NASA’s deep-space systems before astronauts attempt a lunar landing on a future flight.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

NASA says the mission is a key step toward long-term lunar exploration and eventual crewed missions to Mars. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Lawyers in Fulton County, Georgia, are preparing to file a lawsuit over the FBI’s recent search of an election hub and its seizure of records linked to the 2020 election. 

Fulton County Commissioner Marvin S. Arrington Jr. on Monday announced the county’s intent to challenge the search in court.

Arrington said the county will file a motion in the Northern District of Georgia challenging “the legality of the warrant and the seizure of sensitive election records, and force the government to return the ballots taken.”

“I’ve asked the county attorney to take any and all steps available to fight this criminal search warrant,” Arrington said in a statement, according to several reports. “The search warrant, I believe, is not proper, but I think that there are ways that we can limit it. We want to ask for forensic accounting, we want the documents to stay in the State of Georgia under seal, and we want to do whatever we can to protect voter information.”

FBI AGENTS SEARCH ELECTION HUB IN FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA

The announcement comes after FBI agents executed a warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, Georgia, on Jan. 28. The center was opened by state officials in 2023 and was designed to streamline the election process. The search warrant for the center, which was reviewed by Fox News, allowed the seizure of records, voting rolls and other data tied to the 2020 election.

Fulton County is the most populous county in Georgia and includes the capital city of Atlanta. The county was at the center of voter fraud complaints in the wake of the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump lost. The claims did not survive court scrutiny.

When reached by Fox News Digital, the DOJ pointed to remarks made by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last week.

Blanche declined to comment on the investigation during a news conference, but underscored the administration’s emphasis on “election integrity.”

“Election integrity is extraordinarily important to this administration, it always has been and always will be,” Blanche said.

DOJ TORCHES DEMOCRATS FOR ‘SHAMELESSLY LYING’ ABOUT MINNESOTA VOTER ROLL REQUEST

In December 2025, the Department of Justice sued Fulton County for access to ballots related to the 2020 election. However, the county is fighting the lawsuit and claiming that the DOJ did not make a valid argument for accessing the ballots.

“They got copies of our voter rolls and all the original ballots,” Arrington said, according to WLUK-TV. “Now we cannot verify that we’ve received everything back because there was no chain-of-custody inventory taken at the time the records were seized.”

Trump confirmed last week that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present during the FBI’s search of the Fulton County facility for matters related to election security.

Trump and several others were indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County Superior Court in 2023 over allegations that they engaged in a racketeering scheme to illegally overturn the 2020 election. However, the case never made it to trial, as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from prosecuting it. The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council, an independent entity, later moved to dismiss the indictment.

Despite Democrats’ scrutiny of the recent search, FBI Director Kash Patel has defended the bureau’s actions, saying investigators conducted an “extensive” investigation before the search took place.

“The FBI follows the facts and the law, and President Trump and the attorney general have given us a clear mandate to reduce crime in this country and investigate anything that rises to the level of probable cause,” Patel said on “Saturday in America.”

“The FBI and the DOJ went in and collected numerous pieces of evidence that the judge authorized us to collect,” Patel later added.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The director said investigators were reviewing a “voluminous” amount of information collected during the search as the probe remains ongoing.

Fox News Digital reached out to Arrington’s office for comment.

Fox News’ David Spunt and Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch, Ashley Oliver, Alec Schemmel and Madison Colombo contributed to this report.