John Reid would vote ‘no, no, no’ on in-progress constitutional amendments

Virginia Republican lieutenant governor candidate John Reid speaks outside of Falling Creed Middle School in Chesterfield County on June 18, 2025. Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods / Virginia Mercury

After Tuesday’s primary election cemented state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, her opponent Republican lieutenant governor candidate John Reid on Wednesday laid out his goals if elected to the state’s second-highest office. He also announced plans to assemble work groups to study key issues and pledged that if Democrat-led efforts to enshrine reproductive rights, voting rights and same-sex marriage rights into Virginia’s constitution met a tie in the Senate chamber, he would break it by voting them all down.

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“It doesn’t provide protection for people who sincerely don’t agree with gay marriage,” he said of the proposed amendment to protect same-sex marriage at a press conference outside Falling Creek Middle School in Chesterfield. “I mean, you know, I’m running to be the lieutenant governor, not to be somebody’s pastor, but I’ve got to protect everybody’s rights.”

Reid’s comments highlighted the weight the amendments will carry among candidates and voters in the legislative races this fall. All 100 House of Delegates seats are up for election, as well as the state’s full slate of executive branch roles.

Having passed the legislature once already, the amendments must pass again next year before appearing on statewide ballots for voters to finally approve or reject. The reproductive rights amendment has only advanced so far because of Democrats’ majorities in both the House and Senate chamber, while the amendment to restore voting rights to former felons who’ve completed prison sentences and to remove a defunct 2006 ban on gay marriage have advanced with bipartisan support. 

While the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled to protect gay marriage, after it reversed its decision on reproductive rights, Justice Clarence Thomas expressed interest in revisiting its 2015 same-sex marriage decision. If the conservative-leaning high court struck down federal same-sex marriage protections, Virginia’s ban on gay marriage would still be embedded in its own constitution. 

Reid explained that he thinks the proposal could be a burden or moral issue for religious people who might be in positions to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or be asked to officiate gay wedding ceremonies.

He added that he thinks ex-felons should continue to petition governors for a possibility to vote again, rather than automatically have that right restored. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration broke with the precedent of former governors, which granted automatic eligibility for voting rights restoration to felons who completed their sentences, by requiring ex-offenders to petition to be granted the right to vote;  grantee totals  have fallen under Youngkin’s tenure.

Reid said he believes the reproductive rights amendment could allow for “day-of-birth” abortions. In Virginia law, abortions are only allowed after the second trimester if three physicians certify it would threaten the parents’ life or mental health “irremediably” and infanticide is already illegal at the state and federal level. 

Meanwhile Reid’s stance on the amendments is in alignment with Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s current lieutenant governor, who has left notes on both the marriage equality and reproductive rights amendments signaling her moral opposition to the measures. Sears has distanced herself from Reid, dropping out of a rally planned for late April, where they would have shared the stage with Youngkin. Earle-Sears and Youngkin canceled their appearances but Reid held the event anyway. 

Reid said Wednesday that Earle-Sears has still not reached out to him. 

“I’m disappointed in that. But what am I supposed to do?” he asked.

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At a Richmond rally Tuesday night to hype up the back half of this year’s campaigns, Earle-Sears mentioned running mate Attorney General Jason Miyares, who is seeking a second term, but did not mention Reid. 

In April, Youngkin had asked Reid to withdraw from the race after a Tumblr account with the same name as Reid’s other online profiles shared graphic sexual images. Reid balked at the suggestion and stayed in the race. He has remained supportive of Miyares and Earle-Sears’ candidacies. 

While Earle-Sears has yet to appear at events with Reid, it could happen in the months ahead, if the three Republican executive branch candidates want to campaign together as the Democratic ticket plans to do. 

DPVA chair Lamont Bagby announced the party’s slate of candidates Tuesday night, after primary polls closed. With Hashmi as their pick for lieutenant governor, Jay Jones will battle Miyares for the attorney general title and Abigail Spanberger will represent Democrats in her historic race for governor against Earle-Sears. 

In a press call Wednesday morning, House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, drew a bright line between how he believes each camp is functioning in the tense months before November elections. He said Virginia’s Republican top-of-ticket candidates haven’t yet campaigned together because they have different views on certain issues.

“We have diversity with unity, and they have diversity with disunity,” Scott said. “So I think it says a lot about how they accept their diversity.” 

He also acknowledged that both the Democratic and Republican tickets are the most diverse Virginia has seen, representing a range of genders, sexualities, ethnicities and religions. Scott, the state’s first Black House Speaker, said politics in Virginia are reflective of the state’s diversity.

Both Earle-Sears and Spanberger stand to be the first woman governor of Virginia while Reid is the first openly gay candidate to run for statewide office in Virginia. Attorney General Jason Miyares is already the first Hispanic person elected to statewide office and Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, would be the second woman lieutenant governor and first Muslim person in a statewide office in Virginia if she wins. 

Reid said he hopes his party’s policy priorities will carry them across the finish line in November, touting its efforts to give parents more input on public education choices. He noted his support of previous Republican efforts to create school choice vouchers or savings accounts parents could access if they wish to send their children to schools outside of their districts. 

When asked how else he thinks the state could support schools that are struggling with student-to-teacher ratios or infrastructure and funding, he said that helping students switch schools could ultimately help the ratios at overcrowded ones. 

He took aim at his opponent, Hashmi, for her views on education. As chair of the Senate’s education committee, she has been a bottleneck for GOP efforts like the voucher and savings account proposals. 

Calling her “radical,” Reid opposed Hashmi’s goals of increased funding for public schools. During her time as senator she has pressed for funding to boost the number of teachers and specialists, and had advocated for infrastructure and technology upgrades to under-funded schools. 

Over the course of the summer, Reid will be taking himself to policy school by assembling roundtables of various experts and potential constituents with different lived experiences that can share insights on different topics.

“I’m putting together a series of meetings with policy experts, parents, and business people who have a stake in the results of the problems that we’re dealing with in Virginia — and it’s not going to all be Republicans at the table,” he said. 

Details on when those will happen should be announced in the near future, his campaign said. 

It’s unclear exactly what Reid thinks of the massive federal funding cuts the Trump administration is pursuing, which could affect Virginians on Medicaid and have already resulted in thousands of federal worker layoffs.

“Donald Trump’s in Washington. I got to fix what’s happening in Richmond, and I got to make this a better state for Virginia,” he said in response to questions about his view on the administration’s actions. “It doesn’t do us any good to constantly scream about Donald Trump when we have problems that we can address ourselves here.”

Reid did say he thinks the “tone” of the administration’s messaging about the plan to slash funds was wrong, citing former Trump advisor Elon Musk brandishing a chainsaw on stage in a symbolic demonstration of the cuts. 

As a former communications director for former U.S. Senator George Allen (who was also governor at one point), and as a former journalist and radio talk show host, Reid emphasized his experience questioning systems and fostering debate. As a first-time politician he also said constituents won’t have to worry he is beholden to special interest groups or fellow lawmakers. 

“I’m going to come into the Capitol with a fresh set of eyes,” he said. “I don’t owe anybody anything.”

Virginia Mercury reporter Nathaniel Cline contributed to this report. 

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