The south dominated national headlines in 2024 and the region is set to also make waves over the coming 12 months.
From Florida to Washington, D.C., 2025 looks poised to be an eventful year for the region, with many national headlines expected to be made. Here are some of the stories to watch in each of the states for the coming year.
WHAT TRUMP HAS PROMISED TO DO ON DAY 1 IN THE OVAL OFFICE
Virginia: Eyes on the governor’s race
The Commonwealth of Virginia will hold one of the few statewide elections in 2025, and it will be a test for a state Republican Party reinvigorated by key gains in recent years.
The state will hold elections for the state Senate and House of Delegates, along with statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. Republicans hold the three statewide offices, while Democrats have narrow majorities in both chambers of the legislature.
In the gubernatorial race, term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) will likely be succeeded by either Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R-VA) or Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who are the expected nominees for the Republican and Democratic Parties, respectively.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY SAYS FEDERAL AGENCIES CAN BE ‘DELETED.’ CAN TRUMP DO THAT?
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares will be running for a second term and has already garnered multiple Democratic challengers.
The 2021 election in the Old Dominion saw Youngkin, Earle-Sears, and Miyares flip their respective offices from Democrat to Republican, while also winning control of the House of Delegates. While the GOP narrowly lost control of the state House in 2023, despite a strong performance with unfavorable new maps, the 2024 presidential election showed the tide turning in the commonwealth.
Democrats had made significant gains in the state in the 2010s, culminating in a trifecta in 2019 and a 10% victory by President Joe Biden over President-elect Donald Trump in the 2020 election in the state. In the 2024 election presidential election, the state voted for Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump by only 5.78%.
Virginia’s Nov. 4 election could serve as a referendum on how Trump is doing less than a year back in the White House.
WHAT TRUMP’S ECONOMIC PICKS COULD FORETELL FOR SECOND ADMINISTRATION
North Carolina: An effective veto for the governor
In the Tar Heel State, some things will stay the same, while others will change, when it comes to the state government.
While North Carolina elected Democrat Josh Stein to succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, Stein will have something Cooper did not have at the end of his term – an effective veto.
From 2023 until the end of 2024, Republicans held supermajorities in both the state House and state Senate, effectively negating the governor’s veto power. Former Republican state-Rep. Tim Moore, who was speaker of the state House during that time, celebrated the perfect record of 29 veto overrides to 29 vetos during that span before leaving to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In the 2024 election, the GOP narrowly lost their supermajority in the state House, but retained it in the state Senate. With the effective veto in place for Stein, he will wield more power in what legislation gets approved, but Republican leadership in the state legislature will still dictate much of the agenda.
Another story to watch in the coming year is the legal battle that Stein has leveled against a law passed during the lame-duck period of the previous session aimed at undermining powers of several statewide offices.
GAETZ WITHDRAWL SPOTLIGHTS TRUMP NOMINEES WHO FACE SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS
Senate Bill 382, which was put into law via a veto override in December, takes appointment power for several state boards away from the governor, along with taking away various powers from the state superintendent of public instruction and state attorney general from siding against the state review board for charter school applications and the state legislature’s position on laws, respectively. Democrats will hold all of those offices beginning this month.
Florida: A center of the political universe?
The Sunshine State proved itself as an increasingly Republican state in 2024, with sweeping victories across the board of Republicans. Going into the new Trump administration, several Floridians will be staffing several key positions as the GOP looks to Florida for a lot of its talent.
Trump nominated Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for Secretary of State, Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) for National Security Advisor, and former Florida Attorney General Pat Bondi for U.S. Attorney General. He also selected Susie Wiles, a Florida political strategist and one of his 2024 campaign managers, to be his chief of staff.
The beginning of the year will also see Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) appoint a replacement for Rubio in the Senate, a decision which could telegraph the term-limited governor’s future plans. Later in the year, candidates for the state’s open gubernatorial race in 2026 will likely start to emerge, as will candidates for the 2026 Senate election – depending on who DeSantis picks.
Two people close to DeSantis told Politico that he would likely look to Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva, or DeSantis’s chief of staff James Uthmeier as possible replacements for Rubio’s seat.
WHICH JAN. 6 DEFENDERS COULD SEE PARDONS
Florida Republicans are lining up for the special election to fill former Rep. Matt Gaetz‘s seat after the former attorney general nominee announced he would not seek to reclaim it.
So far, six Republicans have launched campaigns for the special election, which would begin on Jan. 3, 2025. The next representative, however, will not take office until the spring, putting a strain on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) slim House majority. The lineup so far includes state Rep. Joel Rudman, state Rep. Michelle Salzman, former U.S. Senate candidate Keith Gross, Green Beret veteran John Frankman, Pittman Marine LLC CEO Bernadette Pittman, and teacher Kevin Gaffney.
One of the other things which will likely put Florida further in the political spotlight is Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. The president-elect stayed at his Florida resort numerous times during his first term and is likely to do the same during his second term.
Washington, D.C.: How Trump changes the town
With Trump returning to power in Washington, D.C., the capital will likely see changes compared to the previous four years under Biden.
Washington, a heavily Democratic city, will have plenty of disagreements over proposed changes and policies the incoming Trump administration will likely make, but one push by the incoming administration appears to be one the city government also wants to see.
ANTI-ABORTION ADVOCATES WORRY RFK JR. WILL WIELD HHS POWERS AGAINST THEIR CAUSE
Republicans, led by Trump, made criticism of the district a familiar talking point on the campaign trail. They criticized soaring crime rates in the years following the pandemic, including incidents that some members of Congress and their staff have experienced firsthand. In the last Congress, members from both the House and Senate introduced bills that would repeal home rule, which grants Washington independence in governing its own affairs, justifying the move as necessary to get the district back on the “right track.”
Since the pandemic, scores federal workers have worked remotely rather than in the office, which has battered D.C.’s local economy and transit systems. The Trump administration is looking to force workers back to the office, something the local D.C. government wants to see.
While efforts to return federal workers into the office will be one point of agreement between the local government and the incoming Trump administration, there will likely be several points of contention on other policies from the D.C. government.
“D.C. will be in the spotlight nationally over the next few years because I do expect the national Republicans to really try to attack us, take away our rights,” shadow Senator Ankit Jain previously told the Washington Examiner.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has also shown a friendlier face to Trump and has already met with him.
“Today, President Trump and I had a great meeting to discuss our shared priorities for the President’s second term. President Trump and I both want Washington, D.C., to be the best, most beautiful city in the world and we want the capital city to reflect the strength of our nation,” Bowser said after the meeting.