To say much happened in Virginia in 2025 is an understatement.
Every year is an election year in the commonwealth, and 2025’s historic races gave us Virginia’s first woman governor, Muslim-American lieutenant governor and Black attorney general.
But long before Abigail Spanberger celebrated victory, the Richmond region started the year with a water crisis that threw everyone’s life into chaos for a week and upended the beginning of Mayor Danny Avula’s term in office. But it also brought us some fun moments, including a memeworthy photo of Avula and Video Editor Adrienne Hoar McGibbon explaining why you shouldn’t use James River water to fill your bong.
I listened to Del. Jackie Glass (D–Norfolk) give an impassioned speech about the expectations placed on Black Americans and what it means to be “one of the good ones.” I heard Del. Alex Askew (D–Virginia Beach) whisper “Damn” to himself as he took a moment to look over the portraits of previous Virginia House speakers while exiting the House chambers.
And I saw how legislators and their staffers interacted on a snowy Richmond day, from state Sen. Bill Stanley (R–Franklin County) walking past the snow-covered statue of George Washington to a staffer for Sen. David Marsden (D–Fairfax) trying to snowboard the Capitol steps on a piece of cardboard.
Later, during the fall special session, I watched Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D–Fairfax) wipe away tears, overcome by the emotion of her colleague Tammy Brankley Mulchi (R–Mecklenburg) talking about her experience with domestic abuse.
Legislators also took time to honor notable people for their public service throughout the session, including A. E. Dick Howard, the legal scholar who was the primary draftsman of Virginia’s 1968 constitution; poet Nikki Giovanni, who died in December 2024 at the age of 81; and Jim Holland, the longtime Chesterfield County supervisor who died in October after a long battle with cancer.
People joined together across Virginia throughout the year to protest against the actions and policies of President Donald Trump’s administration, from slashing health care budgets to deputizing local law enforcement officials to support federal immigration enforcement. In Charlottesville, about an hour up the road, those reasons included a federal pressure campaign that ultimately forced University of Virginia President Jim Ryan to step down.
The moment we heard about Ryan’s possible ouster, I was on the road from Richmond to Charlottesville. News Editor Meghin Moore was already at the UVA campus with Hannah Davis-Reid, who had been our Charlottesville reporter for just over two months and had already been thrown into the deep end with UVA coverage.
Megan Pauly and other reporters were helping us find sources to better explain the magnitude of the federal government deciding to weigh in on a public university’s leadership.
Back in Richmond, Adrienne and Associate Producer Adam Hamza were already thinking about how to best break this news across many different formats — audio, video and social media — and News Editor Sean McGoey, News Director Elliott Robinson and Managing Editor Dawnthea Price Lisco (directing traffic while she was out of town at a conference!) were editing at the speed of light to make sure that no matter the platform, our coverage was fast and accurate.
In short, it felt like there was high-stakes news happening nearly every week. But I also appreciated all of the people I got to meet in 2025: Chester “Skip” Watts, who told us about the legends of Mountain Lake; Danielle Alamrani, whose joy was unforgettable as she moshed to the music of Hatebreed, GWAR and Lamb of God at the Allianz Amphitheater in July; and US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who stopped in Charlottesville during her Lovely One book tour.
No matter the story, the thing that stood out for me throughout the year was how the VPM News team responded with collaboration.
This team never wants to let anyone down, because we see our colleagues giving 100% for our community.
