“I will not stop.”
That is Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mt. Vernon) after Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) vetoed his Tysons casino bill April 9 — the same bill the Democrat-controlled Fairfax Board of Supervisors said the county did not ask for and does not need. The Senate passed it 25-13. The House passed it 55-41. Surovell pledged to file the same bill again. Four years and counting.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mt. Vernon) just lost his Tysons casino bill — by his own count, after four years of work. This time it was his own governor who killed it.
On April 9, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) vetoed Senate Bill 756 — Surovell’s bill to put a casino at Tysons Corner. The Senate had passed it 25-13. The House had passed it 55-41.
Spanberger settled both votes with one signature.
Her stated reason was local control. “Local governing boards should lead on proposed casino development,” Spanberger wrote, “as has happened in every locality.” She added that she remained “deeply concerned about continuous efforts to expand gaming without a dedicated regulatory entity.” That second concern was aimed at Richmond, not Fairfax.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors had already led.
Board Chairman Jeff McKay (D) — a Democrat — was on the record against the bill before it reached the governor’s desk. After the veto, McKay’s statement was direct: “Our residents have been clear in their concerns, and the Board of Supervisors did not ask for a casino and does not need one.” He called the veto a sign of the governor’s “respect for local authority.” Translation: the Senate Majority Leader was carrying legislation his own county’s Democrat chair had publicly told him to stop carrying.
The local opposition was not partisan. The No Fairfax Casino Coalition — the residents organized against the project — said publicly that “claims that a casino would solve vacancy or economic problems in Tysons were not supported by independent analysis.” Spanberger heard them. Her own Democrat county chair heard them. The Senate Majority Leader filed the bill anyway.
Surovell did not concede. He did not pull the bill quietly. His official response was a press release: “I have worked on this legislation for four years. I will not stop.” He hinted on the record that the bill would be back next session.
Surovell’s reading of four years of work and one fresh veto: he hasn’t tried hard enough.
Surovell’s pitch is that “Northern Virginia workers and families deserve the economic opportunity that every other region of this Commonwealth already has access to.” He markets the Tysons site as $1.5 billion in projected annual economic activity anchored by 1.5 million square feet of mixed-use development near Spring Hill Metro. The actual elected Democrats in Fairfax — the ones who would have to live with the traffic, public safety load, and quality-of-life impact McKay said his residents flagged — looked at that same project and said no. Spanberger’s veto agreed with them.
The pattern is the receipt. The Senate Majority Leader files the Tysons casino bill. The Fairfax Board opposes it. The bill comes back the next session, same site, same carrier, same Fairfax Democrats publicly telling him no.
Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Mt. Vernon) told Fairfax in writing that “no” from his own Democrat county chair does not move him. SD-34 voters get the next word November 2, 2027. Mark that down.
This is what the Democrat majority in Richmond looks like with a workable supermajority — they file the same bill, the same way, every session, until it gets through. The same out-of-state Democrat money that elected Spanberger, Surovell, and the caucus carrying his casino bill is already moving on the 2026 midterms and the 2027 General Assembly cycle.
Donate to the Fairfax County Republican Committee so the Fairfax campaigns that contest Surovell’s seat in 2027 — and answer the next iteration of his casino bill — are funded in Fairfax, not handed to whoever Soros writes the next check for.
Richmond is finishing the new congressional map this summer; the federal midterms are six months after that. Every dollar raised now becomes voter contact in October. Match your donation with a neighbor’s. Forward this to the Fairfax conservative who keeps asking what they can actually do.