The Virginia state senate is expected to pass a constitutional amendment on Friday that would allow the legislature, which is in Democratic hands, to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections. If voters in Virginia then approve the amendment in a referendum planned for this spring, Democrats could be in position to gain as many as four more seats in the House.
In a news conference earlier this week, Democratic leaders said that a proposed new map would be made public by the end of the month and that the referendum would most likely take place in April. Democrats currently hold six out of 11 seats in the state delegation.
The push for redistricting in Virginia was only one salvo in a nationwide battle of gerrymandering, with Republicans and Democrats jockeying for advantage ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The skirmish opened in the summer, when President Trump began pressuring Republican-controlled states to draw new districts in hopes of blocking a Democratic takeover of the House. Congressional maps are usually redrawn only once every 10 years to align with the results of the census, but Republican legislators in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina quickly approved new maps that would give their party an advantage.
Democratic politicians vowed to respond but found it complicated in places like California and Virginia, where state constitutions took redistricting power from the legislature and put it in the hands of a commission. With the passage of Proposition 50 in November, however, California amended its constitution to get around this hurdle.
In Virginia, an amendment to the state constitution has to be passed by the legislature twice, with an election intervening, and then put before voters in a referendum.
Last October, in a hastily arranged session just five days before the November election, the Virginia General Assembly passed the redistricting amendment for the first time. Democrats described the measure as a “narrow and temporary” exception, giving the legislature redistricting power only in the event that another state conducted a round of mid-decade redistricting first, and only until October 2030.
Republicans vowed to fight the measure but have had little success so far in the courts. And blocking passage in the legislature became much more difficult after Democrats had an unexpectedly big election night last November, picking up all statewide offices and flipping 13 seats in the House of Delegates.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic governor-elect, will be sworn into office on Saturday, replacing Glenn Youngkin, a Republican. Virginia has a one-term limit for governors.
The House of Delegates passed the amendment on Wednesday, sending it to the state senate. In floor debate, Republicans decried the measure, pointing out that an amendment setting up a bipartisan redistricting commission passed overwhelmingly in 2020, and arguing that Virginia should not follow what other states were doing. They pointed out that Indiana, which is controlled by Republicans, declined to draw new maps.
“The problem with this effort, this rush to change our Constitution, is how blatantly obvious it is that it’s a power grab,” Delegate Wren Williams, a Republican, said. “Essentially, what you want to do is you want to game the system in response to other states.”
Democratic lawmakers countered that the question would ultimately be put to voters, who could decide whether they want to give the legislature the temporary authority to draw new maps.
“What’s plain and obvious and unabashed is the president’s call to ‘Give me more seats,” Delegate Marcus Simon, a Democrat, said. “And why does he want more seats? Because he saw what happened here in Virginia in November, and he knows that’s what’s likely to happen across the country in 2026 unless they work to rig the system.”
The state senate is also expected to pass amendments enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution; removing a ban on same-sex marriage that, while legally invalid, remains in the state constitution; and restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions who have completed their sentences. If approved, those amendments would also be put to the voters in a referendum.
Campbell Robertson reports for The Times on Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
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