RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia’s Democratic-controlled legislature advanced a proposed constitutional amendment Friday that would authorize mid-decade congressional redistricting, sending the question to voters in a referendum expected as early as April and entering a nationwide partisan contest over U.S. House district boundaries ahead of the 2026 elections.
The amendment, if approved by voters, would let Virginia redraw its congressional map only after other states have done so — trigger language designed to answer critics who called the effort unilateral gerrymandering — and would expire in 2030. A specific map had not been publicly released as of Friday but lawmakers said voters would see one before casting any referendum ballot.
The closely divided Virginia Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority, voted along party lines Friday afternoon. A similar vote by House Democrats came earlier in the week.
“Because this is a Virginian-led process and we’re asking for their permission, voters will be able to see the maps prior to their vote,” Democratic Del. Cia Price said Wednesday.
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger backed the redistricting effort in January but stopped short of endorsing a specific plan. “Ultimately, it’s up to the people of Virginia to choose whether or not to move forward with the referendum,” Spanberger said.
The national redistricting fight
Virginia’s vote came amid a wider mid-decade redistricting battle set off by former President Donald Trump, who pushed Texas Republicans last year to create more favorable congressional districts. Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio have since enacted maps drawn to benefit Republicans. On the Democratic side, California voters approved new districts favorable to Democrats, and a Utah judge adopted a new congressional map that benefits Democrats.
The redistricting fight has produced, so far, nine more seats Republicans believe they can win and six more seats Democrats think they can win, giving the GOP a net advantage of three, according to the Associated Press. Redistricting is still being litigated in several states, with no guarantee either party will win the seats they have redrawn.
Debate in Richmond
The proposal drew sharp argument in the legislature over the merits of redrawing a battleground state with a history of closely contested House races and independent voters.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell argued that when Republican-led states “rig elections in their favor, our commitment to fairness that we made — that our voters made — effectively becomes unilateral disarmament.”
Republican Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle pushed back, citing a recent vote in Indiana. “Republicans in Indiana stood up to political pressure and said, ‘We’re not going to play these political games.’ And they stopped.” Indiana’s Republican-led Senate defeated a redistricting plan that could have helped the party win all of the state’s U.S. House seats. Kansas Republicans also said this week they do not expect the GOP-supermajority Legislature to take up redistricting this year for lack of support in the House.
Virginia currently sends six Democrats and five Republicans to the U.S. House in districts drawn by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map following the 2020 census. That commission itself arose from a 2020 voter referendum aimed at ending legislative gerrymandering.
Also Friday, a three-judge North Carolina federal court panel dismissed remaining portions of lawsuits filed by the state NAACP and others seeking to overturn that state’s latest congressional map — a plan drawn to flip a seat to Republicans. The panel had already declined in November to block the new boundaries for the 2026 elections.