Republicans’ anti-redistricting campaign leans on misinformation, ‘offensive tactics’

Opponents of redistricting are tying it to Jim Crow and distorting Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s position to win over voters. And redistricting supporters are twisting President Donald Trump’s words to make their case.

With early voting underway, the Republican opposition to Virginia Democrats’ temporary redistricting proposal is deploying deceptive tactics to win over voters. 

Virginia Democrats and pro-redistricting groups have condemned the circulation of a mailer using Civil Rights imagery and saying that the new congressional districts would dilute the votes of Black Virginians. 

“Just like Jim Crow, they want to silence your voice,” the mailers say. 

The mailers were sent out by a shadowy entity called Justice for Democracy PAC. Kate Seltzer at The Virginian-Pilot found that a Black Republican and former member of the House of Delegates, A.C. Cordoza, was behind the PAC. Cordoza brushed aside criticisms of the mailer at a press conference this week, the Virginia Mercury reported. 

Democratic House Speaker Don Scott said in a statement that the civil rights movement shouldn’t be used as a political prop. 

“The blood, sacrifice, and courage of those who marched, who were beaten, who died for the right to vote – that legacy belongs to all of us, and it will not be hijacked by shadowy GOP political operatives to deceive the very communities it was meant to protect,” he said. 

The NAACP Virginia State Conference, which supports the redistricting amendment, also condemned the mailer. 

“This referendum addresses the manipulation of congressional seats, designed to imbalance representation and secure conservative wins ahead of the November midterm elections,” the civil rights group said in a statement. “We cannot stand idly by and allow these reprehensible racist tactics go unchallenged.”

There’s also been distribution of mailers and text messages that distort Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s position on redistricting. Justice for Democracy PAC sent a mailer suggesting Spanberger opposed the referendum, according to an image posted on Reddit. And the Democracy and Justice PAC, which is also tied to Cordoza, sent out a text message suggesting Spanberger was anti-redistricting, according to an image posted on X. 

The Virginia Mercury reported that both PACs share the same address as a political compliance firm run by attorney Christopher Woodfin, and that he serves as treasurer for both PACs.

Spanberger supported Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting commission in 2020, but also supports the current redistricting referendum given the push by Republicans to redraw congressional maps in states like North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. 

Last year, Trump made the unusual move of pressuring Republican states to redraw their congressional districts in the middle of the decade to help the GOP in this fall’s midterms. Such redistricting usually occurs at the end of the decade to reflect census data.

As Republicans began redrawing their maps to tilt elections in their favor, Democrats in California and here in Virginia felt no choice but to follow suit as a means of pushing back on the MAGA movement’s norms-busting grip on power.

Deceptive campaign tactics haven’t been limited to redistricting opponents. In Page County, where President Donald Trump won 76% of the vote in 2024, the county Democratic Committee paid for a billboard that features Trump’s face that says, “President Trump says ‘Take over the voting.’” The ad urges people to vote yes on Democrats’ redistricting proposal. 

According to the pro-redistricting group, Virginians for Fair Elections, the anti-redistricting campaign has seen an injection of funds from money tied to the MAGA movement. 

“This week alone, more than $3 million in MAGA dark money has flooded into Virginia to fund misinformation and offensive tactics designed to scare and confuse voters,” said Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday. 

The pro-redistricting effort has also received millions of dollars in funding, including from the national Democratic group House Majority Forward, according to Virginia Scope.