Virginia Supreme Court Rejects Dems’ Aggressive Mid-Decade Redistricting Plan
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday rejected the state’s mid-decade redistricting effort, which was passed by referendum last month and would overwhelmingly benefit Democrats.
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The state spent $5.2 million to pay for the special election to ask voters to approve the map, which would have created ten districts that favor Democrats, with just one district favoring Republicans.
The new map was designed to allow Democrats to pick up as many as four seats in the upcoming midterm elections.
But after the Republican National Committee challenged the new map in court, judges for the state’s supreme court found that the legislature made procedural errors in how it placed the question on the ballot last month. The court’s majority found that the legislature violated the multi-step process for putting constitutional amendments on the ballot.
“This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy,” the judges wrote.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the majority added.
The court ordered the state to use the same congressional district map in the upcoming midterm elections as it used in 2022 and 2024.
“Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. “Today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the rule of law and struck down Democrats’ unconstitutional maps. The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters. We took them to court, and we won”
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott issued a statement on Friday saying, “We respect the decision of the Supreme Court of Virginia.”
“I’m proud that Virginians came out in historic numbers, made their voices heard, and sent a message not just here at home — but across the country — to Donald Trump and his administration,” Scott added.
“Three million people voted in a free and fair election. We gave this decision to the voters — exactly where it belongs— and they spoke loud and clear. They voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab,” he said.
“We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters — not politicians — have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people,” he concluded.
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Virginia was one of at least eight states to approve a new map as part of a tit-for-tat redistricting battle between the parties that began when Texas advanced a map favoring Republicans last year. Both parties are looking to gain an edge in the November midterms to keep or gain control of the closely divided House.
Other states that have approved new maps include Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Ohio, Utah, California, and Florida. Lawmakers in Indiana and Maryland rejected new map proposals that would have favored Republicans and Democrats, respectively.
The Virginia ruling means Republicans’ redistricting efforts have netted an extra 10 favorable seats over Democrats, according to NPR’s count.
The referendum-passed constitutional amendment in Virginia would have temporarily bypassed the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission to implement a new congressional map until 2030, when mapmaking responsibilities would return to the commission.
Democrats in Virginia successfully won a trifecta of governmental control last November, taking over the governor’s mansion and both chambers of the state legislature.
Throughout the campaign, Republicans called out Democrats for pushing a measure to bypass the bipartisan redistricting commission, which voters approved just six years ago by an almost two-to-one margin.
Nearly $100 million was spent campaigning on the measure. Just one month ago, Virginians for Fair Elections, the pro-referendum group, had spent 17 times more than Virginians for Fair Maps on ads. By Monday, the pro-referendum group had only spent three times as much.
Democrats, for their part, argued that they were giving their party a fighting chance after Republicans moved to gerrymander districts in several other states.
The court’s decision comes days after federal authorities searched the office of Virginia state Senate Leader L. Louise Lucas (D), a main architect of the state’s redistricting proposal. Authorities also searched a nearby cannabis dispensary that she co-owns. Sources told the Associated Press the investigation was corruption-related and was opened under the Biden administration.
Lucas, for her part, has dismissed the investigation as politically motivated.
“Today’s actions by Federal agents are about far more than one state senator; they are about power and who is allowed to use it on behalf of the people,” Lucas said in a statement on X.
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