Obama is wading into another midterm-era redistricting fight, this time by backing a Virginia Democratic ballot measure that asks voters to approve a new set of congressional district lines. The former president urged support for the referendum in a video released to The Associated Press ahead of its appearance, with the vote set for April 21 after Virginia’s Supreme Court cleared the question for voters.
The court’s decision came Thursday, according to the report, one day after it had allowed the redistricting question to go to the ballot. Early voting begins Friday, setting up a campaign that Democrats are portraying as a way to protect voting power while Republicans argue the proposal would reshape districts to advantage one political region over another.
Obama’s message targeted the stakes for voters in Virginia even as he framed the referendum as part of a broader national struggle over mid-cycle map changes. In the AP-reported video, he said it would make sure “your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states.” He added that “This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall,” and said “voters will have the final say over what the maps look like.”
The measure itself traces to actions by Virginia Democrats earlier this year. In February, Democratic lawmakers released a new congressional map aimed at adding four seats for their party, and the Democratic-led legislature passed the proposal before Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed it into law. The map, however, is tied to the April referendum and to judicial review, meaning it cannot take effect automatically.
As the legal questions continue, the report said the situation in Virginia has been evolving quickly and that there are no guarantees the map will take effect this year even if voters approve it. The Virginia Supreme Court, the story said, decided Wednesday that the new map could go before voters while the justices continued reviewing legal challenges. The court has not yet ruled on whether the mid-decade redistricting plan and the voter referendum are legal, leaving open the possibility that the April vote could be overtaken by later court outcomes.
Democratic lawmakers have presented the Virginia effort as retaliation to what they characterize as Republican moves supported by the Trump White House. Republicans, by contrast, describe the plan differently, saying it would enable Democrats and liberals—particularly in northern Virginia—to take control of congressional districts in the rest of the state.
The AP report also placed the Virginia push in the context of Obama’s longer involvement in redistricting strategy after leaving office in 2017. The former president has promoted efforts tied to the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its affiliates, and the report said one affiliate is headed by Eric Holder, who served as Obama’s attorney general.
Redistricting has also been a recurring theme in Obama’s political activity beyond Virginia, including support for a Democratic ballot measure in California. The AP report said Obama appeared in ads supporting Proposition 50 there, and it referenced his comments at an NDRC fundraiser in which he said partisan gerrymandering was not his “preference” but warned that Republicans and the Trump administration would not stop without effective Democratic response.
The Virginia plan is designed, Obama said in the AP-reported video, as a temporary construct rather than a permanent shift in how district lines are drawn. He said Virginia would return after the next census in 2030 to a system that uses a bipartisan redistricting commission to redraw the maps, positioning the current referendum as a stopgap aimed at shaping the midterms this fall.