Virginia Democrats’ Move to Scuttle Independent Redistricting Commission Draws GOP Pushback

Virginia Democrats are planning to try to stack the 2026 congressional elections in their favor via redistricting if they are victorious in November’s off-year elections.

The announcement Thursday is making the fate of the partisan composition of Virginia’s 11-member congressional delegation a campaign issue ahead of the Nov. 4 elections. 

“This seems like a pretty desperate move from Democrats to change the conversation a week before the election,” Adam Kincaid, the executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, told The New York Times. 

“It’s nuts, and it’s a desperate political ploy, and I think it is unconstitutional,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, told Washington’s WJLA-TV News. 

“But here we are, with the Democrat leadership in Virginia, in our House and our Senate, calling everybody back next week, literally 33 days into an election, trying to run some desperate ploy to redistrict Virginia,” the governor added.

Youngkin’s comments come after Democrats have been criticized by Republicans for not calling for Democrat Virginia attorney general nominee Jay Jones to drop out after revelation of a 2022 text-message exchange, first reported by National Review, in which Jones mused about shooting then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert. Jones later apologized for the texts. The story surfaced in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he was giving a speech on a college campus in September.

There are currently five Republicans representing districts in Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives. If the Democrats’ gerrymandering attempt were to be successful, they could eliminate two or three of the Republicans’ House seats. Democrats would have to pass the measure twice in the state General Assembly in consecutive sessions. The effort would then be decided by voters through a statewide ballot referendum.

Virginia would be the second state to see Democrats attempt to redistrict in their favor following California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s endeavor to temporarily ditch the state’s independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission. 

“In 2020, Virginians overwhelmingly—nearly 2-to-1—expressed their support for an independent redistricting process by establishing the Independent Redistricting Commission,” the Virginia Republican delegation said in a statement following the Democrats’ announcement.

“That mandate was designed to take politics out of drawing congressional maps, and reports that Virginia Democrats are seeking to redraw the map mid-decade disregards the will of the people,” the statement added.

Republicans passed their own new congressional map in Texas, and similar GOP efforts have been contemplated in Missouri and Indiana.

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