News: All six House Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation are endorsing the legislature’s proposed redistricting plan ahead of the April 21 referendum.
Reps. Don Beyer, Eugene Vindman, Jennifer McClellan, James Walkinshaw, Suhas Subramanyam and Bobby Scott signed a letter urging voters in the commonwealth to support the constitutional amendment that would allow the Virginia legislature to redraw their districts.
The proposed new map could net Democrats as many as four seats in the 11-district delegation. A 10D-1R map would be a huge boon to Democrats’ chances of winning the House majority in November.
The statewide referendum is happening regardless of whether Democrats in the delegation approve of it. But their support is a big deal politically because some members were privately hesitant about a map that was aggressively gerrymandered.
“This is not a permanent change. It is a temporary response to an extraordinary national moment,” the Democrats wrote in the letter. “That is why we support a Yes vote on the upcoming Virginia referendum.”
In the letter, the members acknowledged that they support banning gerrymandering nationwide. Many strongly backed the commonwealth’s bipartisan redistricting commission when it was created. The members described their reversal as a necessary response to President Donald Trump’s attempt to gerrymander maps in red states.
The details. This proposed map is likely to elect 10 Democrats in 2026 when the environment is expected to be favorable. But we’ll note that this map has eight safe blue seats, one safe red seat and two fairly competitive districts. This isn’t a locked-in 10-1 map.
Some Virginia Democrats feared a map with 10 safe blue seats could stretch their voters too thin and be too unpalatable to pass the referendum needed to enact it.
One big caveat here: Republicans have filed a slew of lawsuits challenging the map. And a Tazewell County Circuit Court judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the referendum in response to a Republican lawsuit.
Democrats are appealing that decision to the Virginia Supreme Court and remain confident the election will proceed. The state’s highest court declined to pause the referendum as it considered a different GOP lawsuit.
Redistricting in Virginia has been anything but simple. Sparring between Democrats in the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates delayed the release of a proposed map. Members of each chamber accused the other of trying to draw seats for their own ranks. The final proposal ultimately looked similar to the Virginia House’s proposed map.
