Virginia Supreme Court strikes down redistricting in blow to Democrats

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down the state’s recently passed redistricting referendum, dealing a massive blow to Democrats who hoped to gain several seats from new House maps.

The redistricting ballot measure passed by three percentage points in late April in what was seen at the time as a major win for Democrats, who stood to gain as many as four seats from redrawn maps ahead of the November midterms.

The Virginia Supreme Court decision comes amid an ongoing partisan gerrymandering war and as Republican-led states across the South are working to redraw their House districts after a pivotal Supreme Court decision that weakened part of the Voting Rights Act.

“We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters — not politicians — have the final say. Because in Virginia, power still belongs to the people,” Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Don Scott, a Democrat, said in a statement after the ruling.

President Donald Trump, who has urged GOP-led states to draw more favorable maps in an attempt to hold a slim House majority, celebrated the decision, while Democrats vowed to assess their options.

“Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” Trump posted on TruthSocial.

The court ruled that the state proposed a constitutional amendment to allow partisan gerrymandering in an “unprecedented manner.”

“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote in the majority opinion.

The decision gives Republicans a decisive edge in the redistricting wars and could nullify Democrats’ advantage going into the 2026 midterm elections. Without Virginia’s redraw, redistricting efforts in the last year could give Republicans as much as a 12-seat edge over Democrats, according to an analysis by Issue One, a bipartisan group that seeks to reduce the influence of money in politics.

“The Virginia Supreme Court has affirmed what we believed from the beginning — the hastily drawn egregious gerrymander was unconstitutional. This ruling is a victory for democracy and ensures Virginians have fair representation in Congress,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a post to X on Friday.

The Virginia decision comes less than 24 hours after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed into law a new map that would…