Virginia Lawmakers Vote To Approve Redistricting Effort
On Friday, Virginia lawmakers approved a redistricting plan that could net Democrats four seats in the House.
According to the Washington Post, the proposed constitutional amendment would temporarily shift control of the state’s maps from an independent, bipartisan committee to the Grand Assembly until 2030. Virginia Democrats said the new map would be revealed at the end of the month, with a referendum vote on it likely held in April.
Of all the entrants into the nationwide redistricting battle, Virginia was the most surprising.
When Virginia announced its redistricting effort in October, there was no guarantee it would succeed. Virginia’s path to a new congressional map is the most winding of any of the states that have announced one so far, as it would require an amendment to the state’s constitution. It requires two separate votes by the Grand Assembly, cast before and after an election, and then put before voters as a referendum.
Luckily, Democrats crushed it during Virginia’s November elections, gaining more seats in the Grand Assembly and taking control of both the governor and attorney general’s offices. While they likely have the votes to pass the measure in the state legislature, the big question mark is the voter referendum.
In their objection to the measure, state Republicans pointed out that voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2020, which placed control of the state’s congressional maps in a bipartisan redistricting committee. “The problem with this effort, this rush to change our Constitution, is how blatantly obvious it is that it’s a power grab,” Delegate Wren Williams, a Republican, said during the debate period. “Essentially, what you want to do is you want to game the system in response to other states.”
“What’s plain and obvious and unabashed is the president’s call to ‘Give me more seats,” Delegate Marcus Simon, a Democrat, said in response. “And why does he want more seats? Because he saw what happened here in Virginia in November, and he knows that’s what’s likely to happen across the country in 2026 unless they work to rig the system.”
Simon is referencing Trump’s push on several Republican state legislatures to redraw their maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House, with Democrats needing only a net gain of three seats to flip control.
Trump’s redistricting push started in Texas last summer, when Gov. Greg Abbott used the Kerr County floods to call a special legislative session focused on redistricting. After a fraught, monthlong process, the Texas state legislature passed a map that potentially gives Republicans five new House seats. Shortly after, Missouri, North Carolina, and Florida all took up redistricting efforts of their own. Missouri passed a map that gives Republicans one new House seat, though a voter-led ballot initiative may put it to a vote and take it out of play in the 2026 midterms. North Carolina passed a new map giving Republicans an extra House seat, and Florida is currently in a special session focused on redistricting.
Redistricting is typically only done every 10 years in response to Census data. Control of congressional maps typically rests with the state legislature in many Red states, while Blue states usually have independent redistricting committees and have to go through more legal maneuvering to trigger a mid-decade redistricting effort. It’s why California had to hold a special election in November to temporarily place control of the state’s congressional maps with the state legislature. Voters overwhelmingly approved the new map, which was explicitly designed to neutralize the gains made in the Texas map. Should Virginia prove successful in its redistricting effort, the math will only get tighter for House Republicans.
Trump is a deeply unpopular president. His polling was already poor, and the authoritarian tactics employed by ICE in his immigration campaign are only alienating him to more and more voters. His 2024 electoral victory didn’t come from expanding his base, but rather from depressed Democratic turnout compared to 2020. With people genuinely afraid of ICE coming to their city, and his economic moves only favoring the 1%, he’s only giving Democrats more momentum heading into the midterms.
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Judge Rules Democrats Can Continue Virginia Redistricting Effort