Virginia Democratic lawmakers on Friday took the first big step in a complicated maneuver to redraw the state's congressional map before next year's midterm elections.
The Virginia state Senate on Friday passed a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to draw new maps if another state does the same outside of the usual decennial cycle, unless it comes as result of a court order. The state House approved the measure on Wednesday.
Virginia Democrats need to bypass the bipartisan redistricting commission voters approved just five years ago to pursue a new map that would boost their party. To do so, the Legislature must pass the proposed constitutional amendment twice, with an election in between. Lawmakers took this first vote ahead of Tuesday's elections in Virginia, where key statewide offices, including the governorship, and all 100 state House seats are on the ballot.
Once lawmakers pass the amendment in two different sessions, it will then need to go before voters for final approval. If a majority supports it, Democrats would then need to move quickly to pass new maps before the 2026 elections.
Virginia Democrats’ plan will also require a successful Nov. 4 election so they can pass the amendment in a second session. Democrat Abigail Spanberger is the favorite in the governor’s race, which would flip the seat from GOP control. Democrats are also aiming to maintain or expand their 51-49 majority in the state House.
Democrats currently represent six of Virginia's 11 congressional districts. Depending on how aggressive they choose to be, they could draw two or three new Democratic-leaning seats with a new map.
The current lines were drawn by a pair of special masters appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court after the commission failed to agree on maps in the 2021 election cycle. The resulting map gave no partisan advantage to either party, according to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.
More than 65% of Virginia voters approved the creation of the redistricting commission in 2020. But Democrats now argue that President Donald Trump's push for Republicans in states like Texas to draw new maps made their own maneuver necessary.
Republicans argued that Democrats were undermining the voter-approved commission and lambasted them for doing so while Virginians had begun early voting ahead of Tuesday's election.
"This amendment doesn’t just trample the process that we have created and put in our Constitution. It betrays the people’s will," said state Sen. Glen Sturtevant, a Republican. "What’s worse, it’s being done in the middle of an election. That’s not reform, that’s reversal. It’s not transparency, it’s a power grab."
Democratic state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, a vocal proponent of the redistricting commission that was approved in 2020, disagreed.
“We’re not trying to end the practice of fair maps. We are asking the voters if, in this one limited case, they want to assure that a constitutional norm-busting president can’t rig the entire national election by twisting the arms of a few state legislatures,” he said in floor debate.
Virginia's push is just the latest chapter in this year's national redistricting saga. Democrats in California are similarly attempting to circumvent its independent redistricting commission and seeking voter approval to pass new maps to boost the party.
After Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina enacted new maps, Indiana's GOP-controlled Legislature will convene for special session on redistricting next week as the party seeks to protect its narrow U.S. House majority.
