It’s easy these days to feel like nothing is working.

Gas prices creep up again just when you thought they might stabilize. The news from overseas seems to get worse by the day. Congress feels permanently stuck — more interested in fighting than governing. Billionaires come and blow up the Federal Government, then get bored and move on, leaving destruction in their wake.

I’ve heard from many of you that it often feels like no matter how hard you work or how loudly you speak, it doesn’t make much difference.

Let me shift your focus south, down to Richmond, where Democrats recently won control of both houses in the legislature and the Governor’s mansion.

I love serving the people of Falls Church in the General Assembly, because that’s where we can get things done. And this session shows us how much we can get done when we have free and fair elections that reflect the will of the people.

I picked three bills that started as ideas and are now law to illustrate my point. 

The first is my bill banning unserialized ghost guns. These are untraceable firearms that can be assembled at home or purchased in parts, with no background check and no serial number. Law enforcement has been sounding the alarm about them for years. So have we.

But getting this bill across the finish line took time and not just because of partisan disagreement. Early on, some of my fellow Democrats were skeptical. The technology was new, the terminology was confusing, and there were real questions about how the bill would work. I spent years meeting with colleagues, law enforcement, prosecutors, and advocates — walking through what ghost guns actually are and why they posed a unique threat.

Eventually, we built consensus and passed the bill only to see it vetoed by a Republican governor who clearly understood the issue but didn’t seem to share the urgency. So, we came back the next year. And the next.

I introduced this legislation six years running before we finally had the votes to pass it and a Governor willing to sign it. Now, it’s the law in Virginia. In a few short months it will be illegal to buy, sell, manufacture, or possess these dangerous, untraceable weapons.

The second bill abolishes the common law crime of suicide. That may sound odd at first — after all, no one is prosecuting someone for attempting suicide. But the fact that it remained technically a crime created real legal complications. It discouraged people from seeking help, complicated crisis response, and carried a stigma that belongs in another century.

This bill also took years for a different reason. When legislators first heard it, many assumed it must be about assisted suicide. Some worried there was a hidden agenda. Others thought it was part of a broader debate about end-of-life care.

This bill did one simple thing: remove an outdated common law crime that no longer made sense. But getting people comfortable with that required dozens of one-on-one conversations. I met with colleagues individually, explained the narrow scope, worked with stakeholders, and reassured people that the bill did exactly what it said. No more and no less.

Year after year, those conversations added up. And this year, with a Democratic trifecta and broad bipartisan support, we finally removed this outdated relic from Virginia law.

Two tough issues. Years of work. Real change.

But progress doesn’t always have to take years.

The third bill the Governor signed came from a college student who reached out to me last summer. A thoughtful suggestion about how Virginia law could work better. We met, talked it through, drafted language, and introduced the bill in January. It passed both chambers. The Governor signed it. On July 1, 2026, it will be the law. One year from conversation to law.

That’s the government working the way it’s supposed to.

Slow when it needs to be careful. Persistent when the work is hard. And sometimes when the idea is right and the moment is right surprisingly fast.

At a time when the world feels unstable and Washington feels broken, Virginia showed that elections matter. Because voters chose a Democratic majority and a Democratic governor, we were able to finally get two long-stalled priorities across the finish line and still move quickly on new ideas.

If we want this kind of progress in Washington — if we want a Congress that can actually govern — the first step is leveling the playing field for the 2026 midterms. Here in Virginia, that starts with voting YES by April 21.

Because elections matter. They always have. And if this past week is any indication, they still do.