Capitol Courage

Season 2, Episode 6: Don't Do AI (But Do Claude If You Do) and Debates on Housing & Gaming

As we’ve been recording Season 2, our day jobs keep getting in the way of both recording, and in today’s instance, posting an episode we recorded 5 days ago. So apologies to our listeners that some references might be a little old. Join us today though as we break down some recent Virginia General Assembly debates on affordable housing and gaming, discuss the latest in AI, and celebrate Women’s History Month!

Season 2, Episode 5: Gov. Spanberger Crushing the SOTU Response and Louise Lucas Holding Strong Against Data Centers!

It’s been a huge week in Virginia politics, for many reasons we break down on today’s pod. One is Gov. Abigail Spanberger giving an incredible Democratic response to Donald Trump’s long and awful State of the Union and showing the roadmap for a good and succinct message on affordability impacting real people. Two is Senator Louise Lucas and Senate Democrats staying strong in fighting to hold data centers accountable and not waste taxpayer dollars on giveaways to the world’s biggest companies. And three is the amazing courage shown by a Virginia leader this week in standing up to abhorrent behavior. Thanks for joining us on the pod!

Season 2, Episode 4: Breaking down Budget Sunday

We’re now less than 3 weeks until the close of the 2026 General Assembly session in Virginia, and the battle lines are being drawn over what they might — and might not — do to address affordability. Of course a major part of what the legislature can do about affordability comes from the state budget. Tax cuts, investments in affordable child care, housing, and health care, the quality of schools, and more are all decided based on how much money we have in our budget, who we tax, and more importantly who we don’t tax. In Virginia we let a lot of super rich folks and big corporations off the hook when it comes to their tax liability, and the best thing in the House and Senate budgets released yesterday is the Senate’s idea to eliminate the data center sales tax exemption. It likely won’t make it entirely across the finish line, but props to Sen. Louise Lucas and others who are showing how serious this issue is. For a little fun on today’s pod, join us as we break down former Delegate Tim Anderson’s possible return to the General Assembly and why politics should be engaging.

Season 2, Episode 3: Data Centers & Why You Should Hate Them More

We hope you’re enjoying Season 2 as much as we are, and for the third day in a row, we’ve recorded today’s pod in a different location — let us know which audio you like best! On today’s pod, we revisit a topic we explored last year when we interviewed Sen. Russet Perry and Del. Josh Thomas: data centers. Increasingly, data centers are driving up electric bills, taking our water, harming both the environment and the health of people around them — especially those near schools — and sucking up billions of dollars of taxpayer money in Virginia. There have been scores of data center bills in Virginia this session, and we hope this is one issue where legislators and the Governor continue to show courage in holding this industry accountable. Among several bills that have survived post-crossover, some really good ones include Sen. Lucas and Del. LeVere Bolling’s bills to shift more costs of energy capacity and infrastructure onto data centers, and Del. Sullivan’s bill to reform the data center sales tax exemption so that the data centers have to promote better practices for affordability, health, and the environment if they want to qualify. We hope these bills get signed into law!

Season 2, Episode 2: Going for Broke on 10-1 Redistricting

We’ve been on team “Fight Trump’s Corrupt Plan to Steal House Seats with Fire” since last summer, and we couldn’t be more excited that one of the major accomplishments of the Virginia General Assembly so far is moving forward a constitutional amendment that will go before voters statewide in an April 21 referendum to temporarily give the General Assembly the authority to draw new Congressional lines. The General Assembly has also released the proposed new maps, and under recent election results, the map would result in a 10-1 Democratic House delegation from Virginia. This is what it looks like to flex power and recognize that to pass good policy at a moment when people need it, you need to use every tool available to you. That’s courage!! Props to the General Assembly, its leadership, and Gov. Spanberger for moving this plan forward. See you tomorrow (!) on Capitol Courage Season 2, straight from the 2026 session.