Virginia Democrats in leadership are open to the idea of redoing the Commonwealth’s redistricting process.
The idea comes after pushes from President Donald Trump and Democratic legislative groups across the country for pre-midterm redraws to benefit their respective parties in 2026.
“We are entitled to five more seats,” President Donald Trump said on CNBC Tuesday morning – backing Texas’ plan to redraw its congressional districts to benefit Republicans in the midterm elections.
His comments came after Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams put out a call out this week for Democratic state legislatures to “to fight back and pursue redistricting mid-cycle in order to protect our democracy.”
The fight over district lines isn’t new, and officials in Virginia settled on a bipartisan redistricting commission back in 2020 that was approved by 65% of voters. That left the Commonwealth, on new maps drawn in time for 2023, with a slight Democratic advantage in line with how it had voted state-wide for much of the last decade.
Virginia Republican Party head and Lynchburg Senator Mark Peake said the arduous process of amending the state's constitution is too much of an overreach. He thinks that should be the end of the fight.
“I think the citizens are pretty strongly against gerrymandering and would like to see our redistricting done in a more bipartisan process,” Peake said.
But Senate President Louise Lucas told Radio IQ via text, “Texas may be the catalyst for the change we desire.”
“I believe the redistricting commission needs to be restructured if not repealed altogether,” Lucas added. “It’s a worthwhile discussion for sure.”
Democratic Senate Majority leader Scott Surovell agreed.
“I think we need to have a serious conversation about whether we want to be part of the national dialogue or if we want to let the rest of the country steamroll us,” Surovell said.
The Fairfax-area official voted in favor the constitutional amendment creating Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting panel the first time around, but against it on the second vote.
He admitted the 2020 process led to more compact and arguably “better” maps – his district went from a 60-mile stretch to a more contiguous, compact area – but Surovell feared, in the face of Republican redraws in other states, they may have given up too much power.
“We basically got our hands tied behind our back,” he added. “At the time we adopted the amendment, we thought we were leading America. But given what's going on now, it looks like we're on the wrong side of the trend.”
Political commentator and one-time redistricting advisor Bob Holsworth noted Virginia’s current redistricting commission took the power to redistrict out of the hands of elected officials. In the face of politically-motivated redistricting in other states, he warned...
“You have one party that has the capacity to change things at the midterms for their benefit. And you have another party that is struggling to see if they can engage in this tit-for-tat. There’s no doubt Democrats have put themselves at a disadvantage.”
And he agreed with Surovell in a way, suggesting the bipartisan redistricting commission, with an equal number of elected officials and members of the public selected by each party, is destined to have its maps end up before the Supreme Court of Virginia when the bipartisan commission fails to agree on maps. Then, the state’s highest court makes the final decision in perpetuity, or until something changes in the law.
“I think people can be very well intentioned in doing this," Holsworth said. "But the framework is such that the only outcome that was likely to occur was that you were going to pass this on to the courts."
Virginia’s governor has a miniscule roll in amending the state’s constitution, but campaigns for both Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears did offer comment on the issue.
“Abigail will protect every Virginia voter’s right to cast their ballot, make their voice heard, and participate in our democracy,” a Spanberger spokesperson said in an email. “And she will always stand up to partisan attempts to disenfranchise Virginia voters.”
Pressed on whether she considered political gerrymandering in other states an impact on Virginia voters' voices, the spokesperson referred Radio IQ back to their statement.
Sears’ campaign was more direct in the candidates disinterest in the idea.
“Unlike Democrats who have a history of redrawing lines to fit their agendas rather than work for the people, Winsome puts Virginia first,” campaign spokesperson Peyton Vogel told Radio IQ. “Always has, always will.”
There's also the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court rolling back racial consideration in district lines; the high court asked for briefing on the Louisiana-based dispute last week.
SCOTUS weighed in on Virginia's House districts in 2017. That ruling led to a redraw of 12 seats and the first Democratic House majority in 20 years.
Tavarris Spinks was a plaintiff in that dispute. A Richmond resident who challenged the concentration of Black folks like himself in his district, he's long been politically involved and has become increasingly concerned about reapportionment at the congressional level.
"The votes in Montana are more valuable than votes in California," he said. "At a certain point, the American republic is under threat and the norms we had to protect us were never set in the law."
Surovell couldn't say if a future Voting Rights Act ruling from the high court could impact his chamber's decision to change the existing commission, but he wasn't too thrilled at the idea of states going tit-for-tat as Holsworth warned either.
"It's horrible and I think most people should be offended by the way the Republican Party is trying to overreach nationally," he said.
Any changes to Virginia’s redistricting process would require a constitutional amendment, which likely wouldn’t go to the voters until after the 2026 midterms.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
