Virginia Democrats said they have finalized an agreement over how to redraw the state’s congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, but the issue is still playing out in court.
It follows several other states that have also taken up the initiative to redraw their state’s maps ahead of the midterm elections. The redistricting effort began last year when President Donald Trump asked Republican-dominant states to redraw their maps to keep GOP in control of Congress.
The new map introduced by Virginia Democrats would draw eight safely Democratic districts, two districts that are competitive but lean Democratic and one safe Republican district, The New York Times reported.
As it currently stands, the Virginia congressional delegation has six Democrats and five Republicans.
The state Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the gerrymandering effort can proceed after an appeals court sent the case to the state’s highest court. The issue was brought to court on the matter of mid-decade redistricting, something that many other states are currently doing.
Typically, the U.S. Census Bureau reports population figures every ten years, leading to a reapportionment of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives.
State lawmakers then draw new congressional district boundaries in their states to create a roughly equal number of constituents in each district, but it’s also a state-level process that has varying rules depending on the state.
Redistricting has long been a contentious issue
Redistricting has long been a contentious issue in the United States, with parties battling it out as they draw boundaries that favor certain parties or candidates. Drawing districts that lack contiguity or that favor a party is commonly referred to as gerrymandering. States in the past have also been accused of drawing districts to discount voters of color.
The maps drawn based on the 2020 census were expected to remain the same until after the next census in 2030. But Trump held a call with Texas Republicans in July and told them the state should seek to draw five new seats that the GOP could win in 2026 through redistricting.
It’s a sign that Trump is worried about losing the House halfway through his term like he did during his first presidency, when Democrats flipped the House. However, Trump tampering in the redistricting fight only propelled Democratic-led states to do the same to combat the potential losses.
Since then, Democrats have undertaken redistricting in several states, including in California, where they passed Proposition 50 in the recent election to undo their anti-gerrymandering legislation.
During remarks on Thursday, L. Louise Lucas, the Democratic president of the Virginia Senate, said that they were “leveling the playing field.”
“These are not ordinary times, and Virginia will not sit on the sidelines while it happens,” she said.
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott said Trump “started it; Virginia is going to finish it.”
Republicans in Virginia have criticized the Democrats’ plan, saying that it violates voters’ choice when they approved a bipartisan map in 2020.
“They’re more worried about political gerrymandering games and not Virginians,” state Sen. Ryan McDougle said, per local media.