The National Federation of Independent Business has launched a statewide radio, newspaper, and digital advertising campaign in Virginia targeting three categories of legislation moving through the 2026 General Assembly session: bills that would repeal the state’s right-to-work law, expand a carbon allowance trading program that would raise electricity costs, and impose new one-size-fits-all workplace mandates on employers. The campaign directs Virginians to ProtectVirginiaSmallBusiness.org, where visitors can review the NFIB’s position on each bill and send messages directly to their state legislators.

Virginia is home to more than 880,000 small businesses, and NFIB State Director Julia Hammond framed the campaign as a direct response to what the organization describes as a convergence of cost-raising proposals arriving at a moment of existing economic pressure on small employers. The group has been tracking declining small business optimism nationally, and says the Virginia legislative package would compound conditions that are already straining Main Street operators.

What the Virginia Bills Would Do for Employers and Energy Consumers

The most technically specific of the three targets is a proposal to expand Virginia’s carbon trading program for power generation. Under the bills under debate, electricity producers would be required to purchase carbon allowances through state-run auctions – a cap-and-trade mechanism that increases producers’ input costs in proportion to the carbon content of their generation mix.

NFIB’s position is that those auction costs do not stay with utilities: they pass through to commercial electricity rates, meaning energy-dependent businesses – restaurants, manufacturers, farms, and similar operations – would face higher monthly bills without any direct change to their own operations or compliance obligations. The group has not published a projected per-kilowatt-hour cost increase, but the structural mechanism it describes – generator costs flowing downstream to ratepayers – is consistent with how carbon pricing programs operate in other states.

On labor law, the campaign targets proposals to repeal Virginia’s right-to-work statute, which currently prohibits employers and unions from making union membership or dues payment a condition of employment. Repeal would allow union contracts to include union-security clauses, meaning workers at organized workplaces could be required to pay union dues or fees to retain their jobs. NFIB argues this reduces flexibility for both employers and employees and could discourage hiring, particularly among smaller firms without dedicated HR infrastructure to manage the resulting compliance requirements.

The third category, workplace mandates, encompasses proposed regulations that NFIB says would add compliance paperwork, increase legal exposure, and limit scheduling flexibility. The group’s earlier advocacy in the same session specifically flagged a proposed paid leave mandate, with Hammond warning in a prior radio campaign that such a measure would create what she described as a complicated enforcement system allowing workers to sue directly with possible remedies including double damages, reinstatement, lost wages, attorney fees, and court costs. Virginia’s broader paid leave legislation – which would provide 12 weeks at 80 percent pay with a carveout for the smallest employers – is part of this same legislative environment NFIB is responding to.

Why NFIB Says These Bills Threaten Virginia’s Small Business Climate

NFIB’s core argument is that the three policy areas, taken together, hit small businesses harder than large ones because small employers have less capacity to absorb fixed compliance costs, pass through energy surcharges, or manage expanded legal liability. A large retailer or manufacturer can spread a rate increase or a new HR compliance function across a broader revenue base; a 10-person restaurant or a regional manufacturer cannot.

“Small businesses are already dealing with high prices and economic uncertainty. Now, lawmakers are debating proposals that would raise costs, limit flexibility, and make it harder for Main Street businesses to survive and grow. This campaign is about reminding legislators that their decisions have real consequences for local employers and the communities they serve.” – Julia Hammond, NFIB State Director

The campaign is explicitly designed to generate constituent pressure rather than simply inform. The ProtectVirginiaSmallBusiness.org landing page prompts visitors to contact their lawmakers directly, making the advertising buy a constituent-mobilization tool as much as a public awareness effort. This approach – using media spend to drive constituent outreach at key legislative moments – mirrors a pattern seen in similar small business advocacy campaigns at the federal level, where organizations have used coordinated advertising to pressure lawmakers on legislation affecting SMB operating costs.

What the Bills Would Mean for Virginia Small Businesses in Practice

For energy-dependent small businesses, the carbon allowance expansion’s practical effect would depend on how Virginia utilities structure their rate recovery – but in states with comparable programs, commercial electricity costs have risen in the range of several percentage points above baseline projections. A restaurant or light manufacturer running $3,000 to $8,000 monthly in electricity costs would absorb that increase directly as a margin reduction unless it raises prices to customers.

On right-to-work repeal, the immediate operational effect for most small businesses would be indirect – most small Virginia employers are not currently unionized – but NFIB argues the change would alter the state’s competitive position for attracting employers and discourage expansion decisions at the margin. Virginia’s right-to-work status has historically been cited by site-selection consultants as part of the state’s business-climate profile.

The workplace mandate category carries the most direct compliance cost for affected small employers: new recordkeeping requirements, potential litigation exposure, and scheduling constraints that NFIB says could force small businesses to delay hiring or reduce worker hours to stay within manageable liability thresholds.

Where the Virginia Bills Stand and What Comes Next

All three policy areas are active in the 2026 General Assembly session, with bills moving through committee and floor processes in both chambers. NFIB has not published specific bill numbers for each measure in its public campaign materials, and the General Assembly’s full schedule of committee hearings and floor votes for the session will determine the timeline for each.

The key legislative indicators to watch are:

  • Carbon allowance expansion bills – Committee votes in the House and Senate energy or commerce committees will signal whether the proposal has enough support to reach the floor.
  • Right-to-work repeal legislation – Floor vote scheduling in either chamber; any amendment activity narrowing the repeal’s scope would affect NFIB’s opposition posture.
  • Workplace mandate proposals – Particularly any paid leave or scheduling legislation that moves alongside the bills NFIB has already targeted in prior radio campaigns this session.

If constituent outreach generated through the ProtectVirginiaSmallBusiness.org campaign produces measurable volume to legislators’ offices, amendments or procedural delays in committee would be the first visible sign of traction, making committee markups the most immediate milestones for small business owners following the session.