Virginia high court strikes down Democratic redistricting plan

WASHINGTON- Dealing a blow to Democrats’ electoral hopes in this year’s midterm elections, the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a redistricting plan that the state’s voters approved last month.

The plan was expected to help Democrats win up to four additional congressional seats amid a nationwide escalation for control of Congress in which political leaders in many other states, including California, have redrawn their own legislative maps to gain political advantage.

Experts said the decision, made on limited grounds, prevents Virginia Democrats from using a redrawn map in their favor in the November midterm elections, but does not prevent them from making another attempt in future elections.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act’s ban on racial discrimination in voting, sparking widespread efforts in Southern states to redraw the legislative map to favor Republicans.

Friday’s decision in Virginia, combined with the Supreme Court’s, gives Republicans the overall advantage in the broader race, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

“They won the redistricting war, not just in Virginia, but nationally,” he said.

Democrats could still take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, he said, but “we’re not talking about a landslide.”

Amy Walter, publisher and editor of the Cook Political Report, said that although Republicans gained a structural advantage in November through redistricting, the political climate remains favorable to Democrats.

She likens the Republican effort – launched last year in Texas – to building a sea wall before a storm.

“How tall is this seawall and is it strong enough to withstand a medium-level storm? » she said. “A major storm? »

President Trump, who kicked off the redistricting battle by pressing Texas lawmakers to redraw their map last year, praised the Virginia court’s decision.

“Huge victory for the Republican Party and America in Virginia,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “The Virginia Supreme Court just overturned the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander. LET’S MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Virginia Atty. Gen. Jay Jones, a Democrat who has defended the election process and its results in court, said he was “evaluating every possible legal avenue to defend the will of the people,” and accused the court of putting “politics before the rule of law” in order to “reach erroneous legal conclusions that fit their political agenda.”

In its decision, the state’s high court ruled that the Democratic-majority Legislature failed to follow proper procedures when introducing the plan, which would have replaced existing legislative maps with new ones approved this year by the Legislature.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, in an article, said she was “disappointed” by the decision.

“More than three million Virginians voted in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, and the majority of Virginia voters voted to reject a president who said he was ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress through a temporary, reactive referendum. They made their voices heard,” Spanberger wrote of the April 21 vote.

Virginia’s attempt to redraw its maps in favor of Democrats followed a similar, successful attempt in California.

Following Texas’ Trump-inspired decision to redraw its map to better favor Republicans, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California would fight back.

He then led California Democrats in a successful campaign to hold a special election last November on a one-ballot measure — Proposition 50 — that amended the state Constitution to temporarily sideline the state’s independent redistricting committee and give the power to draw congressional maps to state lawmakers for the next few years.

California voters overwhelmingly approved the plan, with 64% of the more than 11 million votes cast in favor.

California Democrats, who hold large majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, quickly introduced maps designed to help the party win as many as five more congressional seats, offsetting the five Texas Republicans were projected to win.

After the victory, Newsom presented California’s approach as the fairest possible: giving voters a choice. And he called on Democratic leaders in other states, including Virginia, to take the same approach.

Before the special election, California Republicans asked the California Supreme Court to block them, arguing that the measure was imposed in violation of the new legislation’s procedural rules. The court rejected the request.

State Republicans and Trump’s lawyers later appealed in federal court, arguing that the new map was a racial gerrymander to benefit Latinos, and therefore illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected that appeal in February.

In an article

“MAGA rigged the system,” Newsom wrote.

Rebecca Green, a law professor and director of the election law program at William & Mary Law School in Virginia, said the court rejected the redistricting plan based on narrow grounds related to Virginia’s law amending the state Constitution, which does not apply in California.

In Virginia, lawmakers must vote on a constitutional amendment in two successive legislatures, with an interim election between them, she said. However, when Virginia lawmakers first approved redistricting language, it was after early voting began in the November election that was supposed to follow that decision.

That rules out Virginia changing its map to better favor Democrats in upcoming midterms, Green said, but it doesn’t stop them from starting the process again, adhering more closely to the rules and changing the lines for the next election.