Trump Declares ‘Huge Win’ After Virginia Court Strikes Down Redistricting Referendum
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down Democrats’ redistricting referendum, a massive blow to the party amid the nation-wide gerrymandering battle ahead of the fall midterms.
President Donald Trump called the decision a “huge win for the Republican Party” in a post on Truth Social on Friday.
Democrats stood to pick up four additional seats in the U.S. House by shifting Virginia's delegation to 10 Democrats and one Republican. Currently, six seats belong to Democrats and five to Republicans. The decision maintains the voting map used in the 2024 elections, where there are a handful of battleground districts, and now gives Republicans a lead of 6 to 8 additional midterms seats.
The ruling in Virginia follows another setback for Democrats ahead of the midterms, when the U.S. Supreme Court last week hollowed a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, taking electoral power away from minority voters, especially in Southern states.
Several southern states have begun to capitalize on the Supreme Court ruling, including Tennessee, which approved a new voting map a day before the decision in Virginia, likely erasing the only blue district in the state.
Trump sparked the redistricting battle last summer, when he called on Republican-led states to redraw their maps mid-decade. Traditionally, House district maps are redrawn every ten years, falling in line with the release of census data to adjust for population changes and migration.
Here’s what to know about the Virginia decision, and where things stand between Democrats and Republicans.
Millions of votes nullified
More than three million Virginians cast ballots in the April 21 referendum on redrawing the state’s congressional map, with the measure passing by a narrow margin after roughly 1.6 million voters backed it and 1.5 million opposed it. The result was viewed as a major win for Democrats.
“Virginia voters have spoken, and tonight they approved a temporary measure to push back against a President who claims he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress,” Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger wrote in a statement after the result. “Virginians watched other states go along with those demands without voter input—and we refused to let that stand. We responded the right way: at the ballot box.”
Read more: ‘Dark Money’ Floods Virginia Redistricting Fight, With Millions Linked to Peter Thiel
But the court’s decision on Friday nullified those votes.
Tram Nguyen, the co-executive director of the voting and civic rights organization the New Virginia Majority, calls the court’s decision “deeply troubling.”
“Millions of Virginians voted and decided that it was appropriate to redraw Virginia's map, and approved that, and the Supreme Court of Virginia just tossed out the will of the people,” she told TIME.
Following Friday’s decision, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York said in a statement that “the decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand,” adding that lawmakers were exploring options to overturn the decision.
New parameters for state election periods
In a 4-3 decision, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that the Democrat-led state legislature placed the referendum to approve mid-decade redistricting on the ballot “in an unprecedented manner” while violating required procedures.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” Kelsey wrote.
The court argued that the April ballot violated the state Constitution, and redefined the time period of elections.
According to Virginia’s constitution, the state legislature must pass referendums twice, with an election in between. However, when the legislature first passed the amendment, early voting had already begun, which the court argued was during the election period and therefore in violation of constitutional procedure.
“This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote,” the majority wrote, “and nullifies its legal efficacy.”
In the court’s dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Cleo Powell argued that the ruling “broadened the meaning of the word ‘election,’ as used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election.”
Nguyen adds that “the consequences of the decision actually extend well beyond the map,” based on this interpretation of an election period. “Their ruling now essentially says that an election in Virginia spans 45 days, versus the election day, which is contrary to precedents that are set across this country.”
A blow to Democrats in Tennessee
On Thursday, the Republican-led legislature in Tennessee passed an altered voting map that splices up Memphis, the state’s only majority-Black district and Democratic seat.
The new map was signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee and divides Memphis, currently held by Rep. Steve Cohen, into three districts, diluting Democratic voting power by spreading it into rural, red-districts.
“The Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind,” said Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton on social media on Wednesday. “The decision indicated states can redistrict based off partisan politics. Today, Tennessee joins other red and blue states in redrawing their congressional maps.”