To counter Trump, Virginia Democrats plan to redraw congressional map

Virginia Democrats are initiating a surprise plan to redraw the state’s congressional map to help Democrats – countering national efforts to boost Republicans, according to two Democratic state senators, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe plans they were not authorized to share.

Lawmakers could take the first steps – calling the Virginia General Assembly into special session – as soon as Thursday. The process would involve clearing hurdles, including passing a measure to advance the plan before upcoming statewide elections on Nov. 4, keeping control of the statehouse in those elections, and eventually winning the support of voters in a ballot referendum.

President Donald Trump has initiated a multistate redistricting arms race in hopes of keeping his party’s narrow hold on the U.S. House. States normally redistrict once a decade, after the census is taken.

Virginia Democrats’ push to include redistricting in a special session, which is also expected to take up nutrition assistance, comes less than two weeks before the state holds elections that have come under a national spotlight, including the gubernatorial race and races for all 100 seats of the state’s House of Delegates. To succeed with their plan, Democrats must retain control of the House of Delegates where they are defending a narrow 51-49 majority.

The New York Times reported earlier on the Virginia Democrats’ redistricting plan.

Congressional maps are typically redrawn after the census every 10 years to account for population changes, and plotting new lines in the middle of the decade is extremely unusual. It is being done now as Republicans try to hold onto their narrow 219-213 majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republican state senators in North Carolina approved redrawing the state’s congressional map earlier this week, and over the past two months, Republicans in Texas and Missouri also redrew their maps at the behest of Trump. Other GOP-led states plan to follow suit soon, though Trump’s efforts saw one of its first setbacks in Indiana this week, where the GOP state legislature currently lacks the votes to pass a redistricting plan.

In California, where Democrats control the legislature and hold the governorship, voters will soon consider a ballot proposition intended to counter Trump and Republicans. If approved, the measure would clear the way for the state to adopt a new congressional district map that could add up to five Democratic seats.

Democrats in Virginia – a purple state with a Republican governor and a Democratic majority in both statehouse chambers – hold six of 11 congressional seats. Redrawing the map there would require a constitutional amendment, which must pass both chambers in the General Assembly in two separate legislative sessions, with an intervening election in between.

If approved in the legislative sessions, the measure then goes to voters in a statewide referendum at least 90 days later. It must attain a majority of the vote to pass.

Complicating the process is the fact that in 2020, Virginia voters approved a state constitutional amendment that created a bipartisan redistricting commission, ahead of the once-a-decade redistricting process.

That commission – fractured along partisan lines – could not agree to how new maps should be drawn, which prompted a fail-safe measure that left the task up to the Supreme Court of Virginia and two court-appointed “special matters.”

The redistricting effort raises questions about how such a process would – or would not – involve the commission. Both Democratic state senators told the Washington Post that the bill would not dismantle the commission.

Republicans in the state roundly criticized the Democrats’ move.

The campaign for Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears called Virginia Democrats’ move “pathetic,” suggesting that it was intended to slow down her momentum in the race. As the current lieutenant governor of the state, Earle-Sears presides over Virginia’s Senate and would break any vote ties on redistricting held in the chamber.

A campaign spokesperson for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, who said in August that she had no plans to move forward with a redistricting effort, declined to comment.

In neighboring Maryland, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore has said an effort to redraw congressional district boundaries is “on the table.” Republicans control one seat under the current map, held by Rep. Andy Harris, chair of the House Freedom Caucus

Maryland’s Democratic Senate President Bill Ferguson said Thursday that a path to redraw district boundaries “is complicated and not without significant risks that create real uncertainty for our state’s residents.

“Ultimately, we will have to do what’s best for the long-term interests of Marylanders in this precarious moment for American democracy,” Ferguson added.