Special election on redistricting highly likely this spring on new Congressional maps in Virginia

The Virginia General Assembly has set the stage for a special election this spring in which voters will be asked whether they would allow the state legislature to redraw the Commonwealth’s Congressional districts in order to elect more Democrats.

The move is a response to efforts by President Donald Trump to urge Republican-led legislatures across the nation to redraw boundaries for the House of Representatives to guarantee members of his party win.

So far, both Texas and California have moved ahead with new maps.

This week both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates kicked the 2026 legislative session off by passing a second reference of a Constitutional amendment to set up that ballot question. Under Virginia’s Constitution, the legislature must agree to the amendment twice with a House of Delegates election in between before it goes to voters.

Democrats took advantage of a special session from 2024 that had never ended to convene last October to hold the first reference in the House of Delegates and the Senate. Democrats then picked up an additional 13 seats in the House of Delegates.

The House of Delegates passed the second reference on January 14 after about 20 minutes of debate. Delegate Rodney Willett (D-58) is the chief patron of House Joint Resolution 4 which will allow for a one-time redistricting outside of the decennial reapportionment process.

“This keeps Virginia’s options open,” Willett said. “This would enable us to preserve flexibility. If the people approve it and then we implement it, we could make redistricting decisions but there’s no mandate here to do so.”

Willett said the Virginia Redistricting Commission would do the work of redrawing Congressional lines in 2031 after the next Census.

Delegate Terry Kilgore (R-45) said the General Assembly should not overturn the will of voters who approved a Constitutional amendment in 2020 to give the power to draw Congressional districts to the bipartisan Virginia Redistricting Committee.

“We shouldn’t care about what other states are doing,” Kilgore said. “We should care about what Virginia is doing, what message we’re sending to our constituents.”

Kilgore urged his colleagues to follow the lead of Indiana where a redistricting push failed in December. In both the Indiana House and the Senate, some Republicans joined with Democrats to vote against an effort to redraw lines. (learn more on Wikipedia)

Delegate Wren Williams (R-47) rose to ask a question of Willett.

“In 2020, nearly two-thirds of Virginia told us they wanted politics out of our map making,” Williams said. “Why would we reverse course now even under what is alleged to be a carve out for extraordinary emergencies?”

Willett said this is a measure in response to a president who has demanded state institutions make changes for his benefit.

“Our hand was forced here by the extraordinary actions coming from Washington by a president who contacted not one, not two, but multiple states and directed them to redistrict and change the election picture and essentially disenfranchise Virginia voters and other states that would vote Democratic,” Willett said. “We couldn’t stand for that. When a bully punches you, sometimes you have to punch back.”

Delegate Tom Garrett (R-56) argued that it would be Virginia Republicans who would be disenfranchised if lines are drawn to give Democrats an advantage. He ran through a list of states that are pursuing redistricting.

“California, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Utah, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Florida, Maryland, Alabama, Louisiana, New York, North Dakota have all either done this or are looking at doing it,” Garrett said. “You know what makes Virginia different? We are the only state on the list that I named that had a constitutional amendment that passed in 99 out of 100 House of Delegates districts five short years ago.”

Delegate Mark Sickles (D-17) reminded his colleagues that the Virginia Redistricting Commission failed to complete their job in October 2021.

“That commission did not work like we hoped it would,” Sickles said. “And having a bipartisan thing, a group of Democrats and Republicans and citizens come up with these districts, it did not work. The court drew these seats. So I don’t know how much reverence we have for that. But this is an emergency. If this is not an emergency for American democracy, I don’t know what is.”

Delegate Mark Simon (D-13) noted that if Virginia voters don’t want to change the districts, they can vote accordingly.

“You know what happens after this resolution passes?” Simon asked. “There’s a referendum. We get to go back to the voters again and they’re the ones who get to decide what we do going forward.”

The vote was 62 in favor, 33 against, one abstention, and four not voting.

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