RICHMOND, Va. (CN) - A majority of voters in Virginia approved a redistricting effort Tuesday that aimed to add four additional congressional seats for Democrats.
The election came after Democrats scrambled to pass a constitutional amendment allowing the redrawing of the congressional map ahead of the midterm elections in November. Democrats argued implementing a map that's expected to change Virginia from a state with six Democratic and five Republican seats to 10 Democratic seats and one Republican was a necessary response to President Donald Trump's calls on other states, including Texas and North Carolina, to redraw their congressional maps to help elect more Republicans.
Democratic Delegate Rodney Willett pitched the constitutional amendment containing trigger language that would allow Virginia to modify congressional districts if another state modifies its districts for reasons other than a court order. The state constitution requires the General Assembly to give voters two opportunities to vote on representation before implementing any amendments. Democrats, who control both chambers, recalled legislators in October, where the amendment passed on party lines under the guise of a special session initially called in 2024 to correct a budgetary error.
The referendum, which aimed to deliver the most hyper-partisan map in the country, drew the attention of donors who spent nearly $100 million combined in support and opposition. The group Virginia for Fair Elections, supporting the referendum, poured in $64 million, while Virginia for Fair Map, opposing the redistricting, contributed close to $20 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
The donations resulted in wall-to-wall television and internet advertisements. Former President Barack Obama and Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger appeared in several ads supporting redistricting. The anti-redistricting campaign relied on former Republican Governor Glen Youngkin, former Attorney General Jason Miyares and House Speaker Mike Johnson to stump for the cause.
Trump made a last-ditch effort to rally opposition Tuesday when he joined a tele-rally hosted by Youngkin and appeared on a conservative radio show.
"Nobody's ever said anything like it. It's so unfair," Trump said during the "John Fredericks Show" late Monday night. "They even say it's unfair. They say, 'Oh, they'll do it once, and maybe they'll go back to what it was.' The whole thing is ridiculous."
The referendum comes in the shadow of pending lawsuits in the Supreme Court of Virginia challenging the amendment's legality. The high court decided on Feb. 16 to allow the vote to proceed as it awaits briefs due on April 23. A local judge in Tazewell, Virginia, twice ruled in favor of Republicans in separate lawsuits seeking to halt the referendum.
State Republican leaders lodged the first lawsuit in January, accusing the Democrats of circumventing legislative procedure when they began the redistricting effort. The second challenge from the National Republican Congressional Committee and Virginia-based Republican U.S. Representatives Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith accused Democrats of offering a misleading ballot question.
The proposed ballot question asks: "Should the constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?"
The vote comes six years after Virginia voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment banning partisan gerrymandering. The Supreme Court of Virginia drew the current map.
Democrats relied heavily on painting the vote as a way to stop Trump from a "power grab." Trump lost to Kamala Harris in Virginia by more than 5 points and by over 300,000 votes in 2024. Democrats rode the high of the 2025 election, which saw them take control of the governor's mansion and the attorney general's office and flip 13 seats, giving them a 64-to-36 advantage in the House of Delegates.
The proposed map dispersed slivers of Northern Virginia, a densely populated, wealthy liberal suburb of Washington, D.C., throughout the state. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, the only remaining safely Republican seat is in the southwestern part of the state.
Six states, including Texas and California, have already implemented new congressional maps. Virginia's neighbor, Maryland, failed to pass a similar redistricting amendment through the state Senate. The Supreme Court blocked the redraw of a Republican congressional district in New York in March.
Source: Courthouse News Service
