Virginia Democrats are asking voters to approve a new congressional map that would leave them favored in all but one of the state’s 11 House seats, putting the state at the center of a widening gerrymandering fight that began last summer in Texas. The plan now goes to an April 21 referendum, where Virginians will decide whether the new lines can take effect this fall.
State Sen. Creigh Deeds, speaking Friday at the University of Virginia, framed the move as a response to a national escalation. “I believe that people should choose their representatives. Representatives shouldn’t choose their people,” he said. Deeds added that Democrats “we’ve been pushed” “into a situation not of our own choosing.”
The push comes after Republicans redrew congressional lines in Texas at President Trump’s behest to protect the party’s narrow House majority, and after Democrats answered with an aggressive map in California that voters approved overwhelmingly in November. Republicans also added seats in North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri, deepening a fight that has spread far beyond Virginia. The map now before Virginia voters is a 10–1 proposal that would dramatically shift the state from its current split of six Democrats and five Republicans.
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Michelle Maldonado, speaking near her home in Manassas, said she disliked the prospect but saw no way around it. “Nobody wants to do this. I don’t want to do this,” she said. “We can’t sit back and wait.” Her view reflects the argument from Virginia Democrats that in a cycle shaped by partisan hardball elsewhere, holding back would simply hand the advantage to the other side.
That is what makes Virginia’s vote different from a routine map fight. Voters approved a bipartisan redistricting system six years ago, yet Democrats are now asking them to set it aside in order to answer a national Republican offensive. Even neighboring Maryland did not move ahead with a map that could have given Democrats the lone remaining House seat they do not currently hold. If Virginia voters approve the referendum, the state will join the redistricting arms race rather than stand apart from it.
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The question now is not whether the battle is real. It is whether Virginia voters will accept a map that Democrats say is necessary defense and that critics are likely to see as another round of gerrymandering done in the open.
