Virginia Court Blows Up Democrats' 2026 Redistricting Gains

"A 4-3 majority of the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the constitutional amendment referendum that voters narrowly approved on April 21. That nullifies the new congressional map that would have given Democrats an estimated net gain of four U.S. House seats in November."

"Their lawyers argued that last fall, the Democratic majority in the Virginia legislature didn't follow the required procedures for enacting a constitutional amendment before taking it to voters. The key vote in the legislature was first taken while early voting for the 2025 general election was underway. Thus, the court reasoned, the legislature did not allow for an intervening election to begin and end before taking the proposed amendment up again."

"The majority opinion also addressed the obvious question: Why didn't the court halt the referendum instead of letting it proceed and then overturning a decision by voters? The decision claimed that since Democrats had warned against a judicial intervention on the eve of a referendum, they could not now object to a post-referendum ruling."

"On April 29, a 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court majority in unleashed a new round of Republican partisan gerrymanders by gutting Voting Rights Act protections for minority representation in Congress and state legislatures. That very day, Florida's Republican legislature enacted a secretly developed redistricting plan designed to flip four congressional seats, citing the Callais decision as a supporting argument for ignoring a state constitutional ban on partisan gerrymanders."

A 4-3 Virginia Supreme Court decision struck down a constitutional amendment referendum approved narrowly on April 21. The ruling nullified a new congressional map that would have produced an estimated net gain of four U.S. House seats for Democrats in November. The majority accepted a technical argument from Republican lawyers that the Democratic-controlled Virginia legislature did not follow required procedures for enacting a constitutional amendment before placing it on the ballot. The key legislative vote occurred while early voting for the 2025 general election was underway, so the court concluded there was no intervening election before the amendment was reconsidered. The court also rejected stopping the referendum, citing Democrats’ prior warnings against judicial intervention before the vote.

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