Anti-redistricting campaign twists Obama’s words in latest misleading attack ad

A shadowy group opposed to Virginia Democrats’ redistricting push is out with a misleading new mailer and text message ad featuring former President Barack Obama, who supports redistricting.

The political group behind controversial anti-redistricting mailers that featured Civil Rights Movement imagery is out with a new deceptive ad making it seem like former President Barack Obama opposes Virginia’s redistricting referendum, when he in fact supports it. 

Virginia voters have received text messages and mailers with an image of a smiling Obama next to the words, “Vote No on Gerrymandering! Protect Minority Representation.” 

The ad features a 2020 quote from an Obama post on X saying, “For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government.” 

But Obama supports Virginia Democrats’ current push to redraw the state’s congressional districts in their favor to offset Republicans doing so in other states. 

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), the organization founded and chaired by Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., who served under Obama, denounced the mailer on Thursday. 

“The ‘No’ campaign and its allied MAGA-funded dark money groups are so terrified of the voters that they are resorting to desperate, deceptive tactics like this one to spread misinformation and lies,” John Bisognano, President of the NDRC, said in a statement. “There is no confusion. President Obama endorses voting YES to stop Trump and his MAGA allies from rigging our elections and to protect the rights and voting power of the American people ahead of the midterms.”

Earlier this month, Obama released a video urging Virginians to vote yes on the referendum to allow Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional map to help them pick up three or four seats in the US House of Representatives. 

“This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall,” Obama says in the ad. 

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.

The misleading Obama ad is paid for by the Democracy and Justice PAC, a shadowy group journalists found was tied to former Republican state Del. A.C. Cordoza. 

The group was also behind a mailer using Civil Rights Movement imagery which stated that the new congressional districts would dilute the votes of Black Virginians. The PAC also sent out a text message suggesting Gov. Abigail Spanberger was anti-redistricting, according to an image posted on X. 

Spanberger has come out in support of the effort and is in a new seven-figure ad urging Virginians to vote yes, but Politico reported Thursday on some Democratic operatives being concerned she hasn’t done enough to sell the referendum to voters. 

The deceptive tactics also seem to be backfiring, at least in the case of Amana Katora, a Fairfax County resident who received the misleading text featuring Obama. Katora, a registered Democrat, was already planning to vote in support of the referendum but the misleading messaging made her feel more strongly about voting “Yes.” 

“It has spurred me to not wait,” Katora said about voting. “So over my lunch break today, I’m going to go out and just get it done.” 

In person early voting on the referendum runs through April 18, and Election Day for the referendum is on April 21. As of March 25, Virginia voters had cast 496,267 votes, which is more than the number of votes cast at a similar point in last year’s gubernatorial election, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. 

Among those early voters is Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi, who cast her ballot in support of the referendum yesterday in Richmond.

“ This is such a critical opportunity for Virginians to … make sure that the ways in which Donald Trump has tilted the playing field against democratic instincts is corrected,” she told reporters after voting. “ He started this gerrymandering in so many different states, attempting to make sure that Congress reflects the way he wants it to be in these upcoming midterms. It’s important that Virginians stand up and speak out on this issue.”

As Hashmi finished taking questions from reporters, Richmond voter Nidal Mahayni thanked Hashmi for her work as lieutenant governor. He planned to vote in support of the referendum as a way of pushing back against the Trump administration.

“We have to make sure that we protect the rights that we’ve been given, and we have to make sure that those rights are not taken away,” Mahayni said in an interview. “And the present administration is firmly bent on taking as many rights away as they possibly can.”

Another Richmonder who declined to give her last name disagreed. Samantha R., a three-time Trump voter who believes the 2020 election was stolen, voted against the referendum. But she said the war in Iran has made her question her support for Trump.

“I  absolutely voted for Trump and was happy to vote for Trump,” she said in an interview. “I think that at the moment there are things that I am unhappy with in terms of things that are going on within the administration. So I don’t think that right now I could even say that I am pro-Democrat (or) pro-Republican.”

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.