While the Virginia redistricting effort is currently in the midst of a legal battle, that didn’t stop Virginia legislators from unveiling a proposed congressional map that aggressively gerrymanders the state in favor of Democrats.
According to The New York Times, the proposed map could give Democrats a 10-1 advantage in the midterms. Virginia’s current congressional breakdown consists of six Democrats and five Republicans. This is undoubtedly the most aggressive gerrymander we’ve seen in the ongoing redistricting battle. “Today we are leveling the playing field,” Democratic President of the Virginia Senate L. Louise Lucas said shortly before the maps were released. “These are not ordinary times, and Virginia will not sit on the sidelines while it happens.”
“We said 10-1, and we meant it,” Lucas added.
Y’all, this is the energy I need from Democrats nationwide. We’re in a knife fight for democracy, and I’m glad to see somebody acting like it.
Understandably, Virginia Republicans were not enthused about the new map. “This map completely disregards common sense and uses communities of interest to silence millions of Virginians,” Mike Young, the president of Virginians for Fair Maps, a conservative group opposing redistricting, said in a statement. “This is not just extreme. This is an embarrassment to the Commonwealth, and it is exactly what voters rejected in 2020.”
The nationwide redistricting battle began last summer when President Donald Trump pressured several Red states to begin rare, mid-decade redistricting efforts. The GOP holds a slim majority in the House, with Democrats only needing a net gain of three seats in the midterms to flip control.
Virginia was a surprise entrant into the nationwide redistricting battle, though a judge ruled last week that the process state Democrats used to trigger the redistricting effort was illegitimate and barred the map from being implemented. Virginia Democrats have appealed the ruling, and the fate of the map is currently in the hands of the Virginia Supreme Court. Even if the Democrats’ appeal is successful, the map would still have to be approved by voters before it could be implemented.
Should Virginia’s proposed map clear all those hurdles and actually be realized, it could be the most consequential.
Republicans have successfully passed new congressional maps in Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas that ostensibly put another seven House seats in play in districts that favor Republicans. While California successfully implemented a new map that cancels out the gains of the Texas map, there’s still the looming threat of Florida’s redistricting effort, which could potentially give Republicans five more seats.
Yet even with a new Florida map being potentially put in play, trends in special elections and national polling still point toward a difficult path for Republicans to maintain control of the House. Miami-Dade recently elected its first Democratic mayor in decades, and just last week, a Texas Democrat won a state Senate seat in a district Trump won by double digits. Texas’ gerrymander was built around the idea that the GOP would maintain its gains with Latino voters in the 2024 election, but that math may have been questionable.
Who would’ve thought that a racist mass immigration campaign that has resulted in thousands of Latinos being racially profiled and, in several instances, detained despite being U.S. citizens, would make them less inclined to vote Republican?
SEE ALSO:
Virginia Democrats Launch Surprise Redistricting Effort
Virginia Lawmakers Vote To Approve Redistricting Effort
Judge Rules Democrats Can Continue Virginia Redistricting Effort
Federal Judge Rules Virginia Redistricting Effort Is Illegal
