Virginia Dems enter redistricting fight in response to Trump’s power grab

Lawmakers are reportedly reconvening in Richmond on Monday with plans to redraw the state’s congressional maps  to counter several Republican-led states doing the same at the behest of the president.

Virginia’s House of Delegates is slated to reconvene on Monday with state lawmakers widely expected to consider a state constitutional amendment to redraw the state’s congressional maps. 

House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) sent a letter to his chamber’s members calling them back to Richmond and the state Senate received a similar letter. 

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) declined to comment to Dogwood, but told the New York Times on Thursday, “We are coming back to address actions by the Trump administration,” a comment that appeared to reference President Donald Trump’s push for Republican-led states to redraw their own maps.  

Democrats are broadly keeping mum about their plans, but Brandon Jarvis of Virginia Scope first reported that Democrats were considering redrawing Virginia’s congressional districts. 

The news caught many by surprise given Virginia’s elections are about a week away and redrawing congressional districts is no small matter. But advancing a constitutional amendment in Virginia has a number of steps that need to happen in a particular order for it to come to fruition. 

To pass a constitutional amendment in Virginia a resolution needs to pass in both chambers of the General Assembly twice with an election in the House of Delegates in between. The next step would be to put the question to voters in a statewide referendum. 

The speculation is that passing the resolution a week before Election Day puts Democrats in position to do so again when the General Assembly reconvenes for its regular session in January. That could in theory give Virginia Democrats enough time to redraw the state’s congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms in a way that is less favorable for Republicans. 

News of Virginia Democrats’ plan comes just days after North Carolina Republicans passed a new congressional map that will almost certainly eliminate a Democratic seat, the latest front in President Trump’s push to strongarm Republicans into redrawing congressional maps to the party’s benefit. 

Trump first convinced Texas Republicans to redraw their maps, bypassing the usual once-a-decade redistricting to eliminate five Democratic-held seats. California Democrats responded by drawing a new map that could eliminate five Republican-held seats, but that map must be approved by voters in November. Missouri Republicans also redrew their state’s map to eliminate a Democratic seat, and other states like Indiana and New York are considering drawing new maps too. 

Republicans control the US House with 219 members to the Democrats’ 213. Trump’s push to have Republican-controlled legislatures redraw and gerrymander their state’s congressional maps to get more members of the GOP elected could effectively predetermine the results of the 2026 midterms before any votes are cast. 

The party out of power often wins back control of the House in midterm elections, and Democrats have consistently led in polls asking Americans which party they’d vote for to control Congress. If Democrats win, it could offer a check against the Trump administration’s power and overreach. 

But if Republicans draw new congressional maps that guarantee they keep control of the House, then it will be that much harder for Democrats to push back on Trump’s brazen consolidation of control over the government. 

It’s this all out battle for control of the US House that Virginia Democrats appear poised to enter next week. 

A Democratic state Senator told Dogwood on Thursday in a phone interview they had not yet seen the resolution and expressed skepticism about the effort. 

The state senator understood the broader context of the national fight that’s playing out across the country with redistricting efforts in other states, but it wasn’t clear to this Democrat that much would be gained by going down this path in Virginia. 

“We’re a purple state,” the state senator said. “Everybody thinks we’re blue. We’re really not. And this whole redistricting thing really just resonates with a few people in the base.”

Other Democrats have been more optimistic and supportive of the effort.

In August, Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, a Democrat, said of the California redistricting effort, “Every state in the nation should follow suit.  Stay tuned for Virginia…”

On Thursday, US Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia seemed to tacitly endorse the apparent push in Virginia on redistricting. 

“I’ve long supported nonpartisan redistricting and fair maps, but Donald Trump has spent months trying to rig the system instead of actually tackling rising costs for Americans,” Warner posted on X. “It’s no surprise that Democrats in places like Virginia would be thinking through appropriate ways to respond.”