Virginia Democratic lawmakers are planning an effort to redraw their congressional maps to boost their party ahead of next year's midterm elections, adding an unexpected state to the country’s ongoing redistricting arms race.
In a letter Thursday afternoon to colleagues, House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat, announced that the chamber will reopen an existing special legislative session Monday afternoon. State lawmakers are expected to use the session to start the effort to take up new maps.
Under Virginia statute, only the governor — currently Republican Glenn Youngkin — can convene a special session. But Scott's letter makes it clear that state Democrats, who control narrow majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, are using a loophole in the statute by reopening a special legislative session that was convened in May 2024 but never technically concluded.
"The House will meet to consider matters properly before the ongoing 2024 Special Session I and any related business laid before the body, in accordance with the Constitution, statutes, as the Rules of the House," Scott said in his statement.
Virginia Democrats plan to return to the state Capitol in Richmond after Republicans in Texas, Missouri and, as of Wednesday, North Carolina have enacted new maps at President Donald Trump’s urging designed to help the GOP pick up U.S. House seats in the 2026 elections.
Mandara Meyers, the executive director of The States Project, a political group that has discussed the issue with Virginia Democratic leaders, confirmed to NBC News the plan to take up new maps, which was first reported by The New York Times.
“After what happened in North Carolina, and states across the country, in taking this procedural step, I believe they are keeping options on the table to respond to extreme rightwing gerrymandering next year,” Meyers said in a statement.
Scott Surovell, the majority leader of the state Senate, did not respond to a request for comment.
The move comes less than two weeks before Virginia’s statewide elections, which include high-profile races for governor and attorney general. A spokesperson for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The campaign of the Republican nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, slammed the Democrats’ plans.
“This is what panic looks like,” campaign spokesperson Peyton Vogel said in a statement. “With just 12 days until Election Day, Abigail Spanberger and her Democrat allies have given up on talking to voters about real ideas and solutions.”
Virginia, where Democrats control six of 11 congressional districts, would be the second state where the party has taken up mid-decade redistricting efforts. In California, Democratic leaders called a Nov. 4 special election so voters can decide whether to approve a new congressional map that could net the party up to five additional seats.
Like California, Virginia has a redistricting commission written into the state Constitution, which Democratic lawmakers will need to circumvent to net more seats in Congress.
An amendment to Virginia's Constitution requires both chambers of the Legislature to approve a measure twice, with a general state House election in between. If Democrats are able to push through a measure to bypass the redistricting commission before next month's election, they could vote again on a proposed amendment at their next scheduled session in January and send it to the voters, without its ever needing Youngkin's approval.
Virginia Democratic lawmakers face an extremely tight timeline to advance their effort if their goal is to have new maps before the 2026 midterms.
On Monday, they’ll have just eight calendar days to advance a resolution through the committee and floor process in the House and the Senate.
Then, to carry out the process again after the election, Democrats would have had to maintain their narrow control of the Legislature.
Terry Kilgore, the minority leader in the state House, vowed that he and his Republican colleagues would “use everything, legally, everything that we can do, to stop this power grab.”
He out that lawmakers and voters alike in Virginia only five years ago approved a constitutional amendment that created an independent redistricting commission.
"Nothing's wrong with our constitution, except someone from Washington, probably [House Democratic Leader] Hakeem Jeffries, has told them, 'Hey, we need to pick up some more seats for our Democrats, so can you all go back and renege on what we voted for a few years back,'" Kilgore told reporters.
In a statement Thursday night, Youngkin ripped the move and also referred to the commission approved by voters in 2020, saying that, “Virginians spoke loud and clear when they codified nonpartisan redistricting into our state Constitution five years ago.”
“Twelve days before our statewide elections, this is a shameless, reprehensible political power grab by Democrat lawmakers desperate for anything to distract from the disastrous Democrat Shutdown and Jay Jones’ demented comments,” he added. His comment about Jones refers to recently surfaced violent texts made in 2022 by the Democratic attorney general candidate.
Elsewhere, Trump has also pushed Republicans in states such as Kansas and Indiana to draw new maps to shore up the party's narrow House majority.
