Virginia’s state Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved measure that would have allowed Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map, handing Republicans a victory amid a nationwide political brawl over congressional lines.
The ruling, when combined with a recent Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act and a subsequent push by Southern states to eliminate Democrat-held, majority-Black districts, deals a significant but far from insurmountable blow to the Democratic Party’s efforts to win back the House in the 2026 midterm elections.
In a 4-3 ruling, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that Democrats violated procedural state law by advancing the amendment and “submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner.”
The Democrat-led amendment, which had won Virginia voters’ support last month, sought to amend the state’s constitution and authorize redrawing the existing congressional map, split 6-5 between Democrats and Republicans with one likely to favor Democrats in a 10-1 split.
But the high court stated that Democrats failed to follow proper procedure, erasing Democrats’ seeming edge in the Trump-instigated redistricting wars. Republicans, who hold a slim 217-212 majority in the House, are virtually guaranteed to net at least a handful of seats due to new congressional lines.
