Youngkin veto helps maintain Confederate group funding

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed House Bill 1699 earlier this month that would have eliminated the tax-exempt status of certain Confederate groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Confederate Memorial Literary Society, the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Inc., Virginia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans and the J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust Inc.

Youngkin stated that “narrowly targeting specific organizations” for tax exemption… sets a bad precedent and that a broader reform of property tax exemptions would be more appropriate. In his statement, he did not defend the Daughters of the Confederacy or its views but focused on the process of granting and revoking exemptions.   

The bill, introduced by Delegate Alex Askew (D-95), had previously been vetoed by Youngkin in 2024 but was once again passed by both the House and Senate in 2025.

Proponents of the bill saw it as an avenue to bring down Confederate organizations whose values they say are outdated and “ideals promote division and the glorification of a painful past.”

The Daughters of the Confederacy, however, believes that their purpose is to promote and advance the history of the Civil War and that statues represent a memorial to their forefathers who fought bravely during the four years of the war.

Middlesex County Daughters of the Confederacy has long since dissolved as last members of the local UDC group passed away in the 1980s and 90s. They sponsored and paid for the Confederate monument that was erected on the Saluda courthouse grounds in 1910.