Early voting is underway for a statewide referendum over proposed congressional district maps in Virginia. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi spoke with eight candidates for the House of Representatives about the redistricting effort. This report is the introduction to a four-part series.
Virginia's current 11 congressional districts were finalized in 2021. A bipartisan redistricting commission is scheduled to convene again in 2030, and will draw maps using data from that year's federal census. But Democratic state legislators have proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly to redraw these maps ahead of this year's midterm elections. That initiative is now being put to all Virginia voters in a referendum – with early voting open until April 18 and election day on April 21.
The amendment allows this redraw if another state first conducts their own mid-decade redistricting, which has already happened in Texas and other states at President Donald Trump's behest.
According to an analysis by Ballotpedia, six states have enacted new congressional maps ahead of the midterms. Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, and Missouri's new maps are expected to flip nine congressional seats in favor of Republicans, and California's is expected to flip five for Democrats. Utah is under a court order to redraw their maps to include one Democratic-leaning district.
The present makeup of the House is 214 Democrats, 217 Republicans, and one Independent who caucuses with Republicans. There are three vacancies – one of which a Republican has been elected to; he's awaiting being sworn in.
Virginia currently has six Democrat and five Republican representatives in the House. They are elected from geographically succinct districts that correspond with regions such as the Shenandoah Valley, Southwest Virginia, parts of Tidewater, et cetera.
The proposed new maps would likely elect 10 Democrats and one Republican. Many of them bridge Northern Virginia with more conservative parts of the state. Five of the 11 districts would connect to the Democratic stronghold of Fairfax County, prompting the opposition's slogan of "don't Fairfax me."
Despite these maps favoring Democrats, not everyone on the left has been convinced they should fight fire with fire. A Washington Post-Schar School poll from early April indicates the referendum could still go either way – a slim majority of likely voters said they supported redrawing the maps, but Republicans and other opponents were more enthusiastic about casting their ballots.
WMRA spoke with eight congressional candidates about their thoughts on redistricting, and how the new maps would change their campaign strategies and potential constituents' needs. Part one of this series will focus on two candidates from the Roanoke area: Beth Macy and Adam Murphy.
