As they appeal a ruling blocking them from redistricting for the midterms, Virginia Democrats proposed a congressional map on Thursday that would aggressively gerrymander the state in their favor. It creates the possibility that all but one of the state’s Republican-leaning congressional districts could be eliminated before the midterm elections.
The new map would draw eight safely Democratic districts, two competitive districts that lean Democratic and one safely Republican district, according to presidential vote splits from the most recent election. (The current congressional delegation in Virginia comprises six Democrats and five Republicans.)
In a midterm election where Democrats appear to have early momentum already, the Virginia congressional delegation could be represented by 10 Democrats and one Republican. Such a result would be an enormous partisan shift for Virginia, which for years was considered a battleground state before shifting blue over the past decade.
Simply proposing the map does not mean Democrats will have an instant glide path to passage. Last month, a state judge in Virginia issued an order blocking the legislature from advancing a constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to draw new maps for the 2026 congressional elections. Democrats appealed, and the decision currently sits before the state Supreme Court. Should the Democrats’ constitutional amendment effort survive the legal challenges, Virginia would hold a referendum in April to decide if legislators can take up redistricting ahead of the midterms.
Additionally, there has been some significant dissension among Democrats in the process over the last few months, and while leadership seems to agree on the new map, it’s unclear how much potential disagreement remains.
Virginia’s map, which Democrats in Richmond and Washington have debated behind closed doors for weeks, represents one of the most significant moves by Democrats in the national redistricting arms race that has engulfed about a dozen states over the past year.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, has been intimately involved in the talks, with frequent calls to Virginia state legislators to mediate debates among the state’s Democratic congressional delegation.
Long before the unveiling of the new maps, Virginia Democrats began running for the new districts. Former Representative Tom Perriello announced a campaign in December for a presumed Democratic district that would include his home near Charlottesville, while Beth Macy, a best-selling author, has been running for a district based in Roanoke.
Success in Virginia has become critical for Democrats, as Florida, the next biggest redistricting prize for Republicans, appears set to adopt new maps ahead of the midterms, possibly drawing as many as five new districts to benefit the G.O.P.
The battle over congressional districts began last summer, when President Trump pushed Republicans in Texas to take the exceptionally rare step of redrawing their maps in the middle of the decade, ahead of the midterms, to create five new seats to favor Republicans. The goal was to draw as many new Republican districts across the country as possible to help the party maintain control of Congress, and was a central part of the president’s midterm strategy.
While it appeared Republicans had the upper hand at first, Democrats soon responded, adding five Democratic-leaning seats in California that effectively canceled out the change in Texas.
Other states have joined the battle and drawn new maps, including Missouri and North Carolina. Ohio drew new maps to benefit Republicans based on a state constitutional requirement, and a court ordered a new map in Utah that created a pickup opportunity for Democrats.
But some states pushed back on the calls to take the highly partisan step of redrawing maps in the middle of the decade ahead of a midterm election. Republicans in Indiana and Kansas balked at the pressure from their own party and defeated such proposals, while Democrats in the Maryland state senate appear to be mounting a similar resistance.
Intraparty divisions nearly derailed the redistricting effort in Virginia. Last month, as debates over potential maps were taking place privately, state lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled legislature pushed for an especially aggressive map. Some of their congressional colleagues were more cautious.
L. Louise Lucas, the Democratic president of the Virginia Senate, was perhaps the most vocal proponent of the most aggressive map possible, posting regularly on social media taunting Republicans and pledging full retribution in the redistricting wars.
Scott Surovell, the Democratic majority leader of the Virginia Senate, told The New York Times in an interview last month that “there’s a million people lobbying me about this,” including all of Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Yet lawmakers’ own ambitions soon overran the process. Leaders in the party were eager to draw maps that could give their allies opportunities to run for newly created seats.
Additional reporting by Irineo Cabreros.
Nick Corasaniti is a Times reporter covering national politics, with a focus on voting and elections.
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