The Virginia Supreme Court erased a Democratic redistricting victory on Friday, throwing out a voter-passed constitutional amendment that would have reshaped the state’s congressional map to the party’s advantage. In a 4–3 decision, the court ruled that the Democratic-controlled legislature failed to follow the required two-session approval process, because its initial vote occurred after early voting had started in last fall’s general election. The amendment had narrowly passed voters on April 21; the ruling renders that result void.
The procedural heart of the case centered on the definition of an “election.” The state constitution requires that a proposed amendment be approved by the legislature in two separate sessions with an election in between. Democrats argued that the intervening election meant only the single day of voting. But the court sided with plaintiffs who contended that an election spans the entire early-voting period, which in Virginia lasts several weeks. By the time lawmakers first endorsed the amendment, more than 1.3 million ballots had already been cast — roughly 40% of the final turnout. Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey said the legislature had submitted the amendment “in an unprecedented manner,” adding that “this violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.”
The practical stakes were enormous. The Democratic-drawn map would have anchored five districts in the blue fortress of northern Virginia and diluted conservative voting strength in four others across Richmond, southern Virginia, and Hampton Roads. A reshaped western Virginia district lumped together three Democratic-leaning college towns. The new lines, according to the majority, could have given Democrats 91% of the state’s House delegation — an outcome the justices noted was out of step with the 47% share of the vote Republican congressional candidates won in 2024.
The national redistricting landscape sharpens the ruling’s impact. President Donald Trump’s encouragement of mid-decade map redraws has already prompted Republican-led legislatures in Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee to pass new districts favoring the GOP. California and Utah have countered with court- or voter-approved maps aiding Democrats. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act, freeing some Republican states to consider additional gerrymanders before November. The Virginia decision cuts off one of Democrats’ most promising routes to claw back seats, and it arrives at a moment when the party needs a net gain of just a handful to flip the House.
Reactions broke along partisan lines. Trump posted on social media, “Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia.” Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the ruling showed GOP momentum heading into the midterms: “We’re on offense, and we’re going to win.” Democratic leaders framed the decision as an override of the popular will. Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said voters “voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab.” Suzan DelBene, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, accused the court majority of “casting aside the will of the voters,” but predicted that voters would still deliver a Democratic House majority in November.
Democrats said they intend to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, though legal experts called the appeal a longshot. The high court has typically declined to second-guess state interpretations of their own constitutions, as it did in 2023 when it refused to overturn a North Carolina Supreme Court decision that blocked a Republican-drawn map. Even an unsuccessful appeal, however, would let Democrats direct blame toward the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, which has already angered the party and civil rights advocates by weakening the Voting Rights Act.
In a dissent joined by two colleagues, Chief Justice Cleo Powell argued that the majority’s definition of “election” was overly broad, creating “an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning, only a definitive end: Election Day.” The majority countered that the state’s early-voting law had drastically altered the timeline and that the legislature’s failure to account for it was fatal.
The ruling affirms a lower-court decision from rural Tazewell County, which had put a hold on the vote before the state Supreme Court allowed the referendum to proceed pending resolution of the case. With the amendment now nullified, Virginia’s current map — drawn by a court after the 2020 census — remains in place for the 2026 elections.