Virginia voters approve redistricting plan that could boost Democrats’
seats in Congress
[April 22, 2026]
By DAVID A. LIEB
Virginia voters approved a mid-decade redistricting plan Tuesday that
could boost Democrats’ chances of winning four additional U.S. House
seats in November’s midterm elections that will decide control of the
closely divided Congress.
The constitutional amendment narrowly backed by voters bypasses a
bipartisan redistricting commission to allow the use of new districts
drawn by Virginia’s Democratic-led General Assembly. But the public vote
may not be the final word. The state Supreme Court is considering
whether the plan is illegal in a case that could make the referendum
results meaningless.
The Virginia redistricting referendum marked a setback for President
Donald Trump, who kicked off a national redistricting battle last year
by urging Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts. The goal
was to help Republicans win more seats in the November elections and
hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds
that typically favor the party out of power during midterm elections.
But the Virginia redistricting referendum could help nullify Republican
gains elsewhere.
“Virginia just changed the trajectory of the 2026 midterms,” Democratic
state House Speaker Don Scott said in a celebratory statement. “At a
moment when Trump and his allies are trying to lock in power before
voters have a say, Virginians stepped up and leveled the playing field
for the entire country.”
Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who campaigned for the new
map, quickly shifted her attention to the November election.
“I understand the urgency of winning congressional seats as a check on
this President, and I look forward to campaigning with candidates across
the Commonwealth working to earn Virginians’ trust," she said in a
statement.
Virginia vote is part of a national redistricting battle
The redistricting in Texas led to a burst of redistricting nationwide.
So far, Republicans believe they can win up to nine more House seats in
newly redrawn districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.
Democrats think they can win up to five more seats in California, where
voters approved a similar mid-decade redistricting effort last November,
and one more seat under new court-imposed districts in Utah.
Democrats hope to offset the rest of that gap in Virginia, where they
decisively flipped 13 seats in the state House and won back the
governor’s office last year.
Tuesday’s narrow victory for Democrats contrasted with last fall's vote
in California, where a Democratic redistricting plan passed by a nearly
29-point margin.
“As we saw in California, when voters have a say, they are rejecting
Republicans’ attempt to rig the system,” said U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene,
of Washington state, who is chair of the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee.
Republicans pledged to continue the battle over Virginia's new map in
court.
“Serious legal questions remain about both the wording of this
referendum and the process used to put it before voters,” Virginia House
Republican Minority Leader Terry Kilgore said. “Those questions have not
been resolved, and they now move where they belong: to the courts.”
U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, of North Carolina, who is chair of the
National Republican Congressional Committee, said the "close margin
reinforces that Virginia is a purple state that shouldn’t be represented
by a severe partisan gerrymander.”
The back-and-forth redistricting battle also could continue in Florida,
where the Republican-led Legislature is to convene April 28 for a
special session that could result in more favorable congressional
districts for Republicans.
Voters focus on fairness, with different perspectives
The campaign over Virginia’s redistricting referendum focused heavily on
fairness.
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A person votes in the Virginia redistricting referendum at
Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in
Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Republicans argued that it was unfair to gerrymander Virginia’s
districts to Democrats’ advantage. But Democrats argued that they
were creating a fairer election landscape nationally by
counteracting Republican gerrymandering elsewhere.
Matt Wallace, of Alexandria, said he voted for the Democratic
redistricting amendment “to help balance the scales a bit until
things get back to normal.”
But Ruth Ann McCartney, who voted in the town of South Hill just a
few miles north of the North Carolina border, said she cast her
ballot against the amendment.
“I look at it more as we don’t have the population as northern
Virginia,” she said. “And as a rural area, we just need to be
heard.”
A lobsterlike district could aid Democratic efforts
In Virginia, Democrats currently hold six of the 11 U.S. House seats
under districts that were imposed by the state Supreme Court in 2021
after a bipartisan commission failed to agree on a map based on the
latest census data.
The new plan could help Democrats win as many as 10 seats. Five
seats are anchored in the Democratic stronghold of northern
Virginia, including one stretching out like a lobster to consume
Republican-leaning rural areas. Revisions to four other districts
across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads dilute the
voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped
district in parts of western Virginia lumps together three
Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.
Democrats portrayed the Virginia redistricting as a response to
Trump. Ads for the “yes to redistricting” campaign featuring former
President Barack Obama flooded the airwaves.
But opponents of the redistricting also distributed campaign
materials citing statements from Obama and Spanberger, who had both
criticized gerrymandering in the past.
Virginia court weighs whether lawmakers acted illegally
Congressional redistricting typically is done once a decade after
each census.
In 2020, Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment meant
to diminish political gamesmanship by shifting redistricting
responsibilities away from the legislature.
But lawmakers endorsed a new constitutional amendment allowing
mid-decade redistricting last fall, then passed it again in January
as part of a two-step process that requires an intervening election
in order for an amendment to be placed on the ballot. The measure
allows lawmakers to redistrict until returning the task to a
bipartisan commission after the 2030 census.
In February, they passed a new U.S. House map to take effect pending
the outcome of the redistricting referendum.
Republicans have filed multiple legal challenges against the
redistricting effort.
A Tazewell County judge ruled that the redistricting push was
illegal for several reasons. Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr.
said lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the
redistricting amendment to a special session. He ruled that their
initial vote failed to occur before the public began casting ballots
in last year’s general election and thus didn’t count toward the
two-step process. And he ruled that the state failed to publish the
amendment three months before that election, as required by law.
If the state Supreme Court agrees with the lower court, the
referendum results could be rendered moot.
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Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed in South Hill, Virginia,
Gary Fields in Alexandria, Virginia, and Lisa Mascaro in Washington
contributed to this report.
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