This past Wednesday, amid lawsuits, homily-length introductions to the Capitol, and many out of order remarks, the Virginia House of Delegates passed along party lines a constitutional amendment which would open the door to mid-decade redistricting of the Commonwealth’s congressional maps.
Lee Ware has called it “a transparent political power play.”
Lieutenant Governor candidate Ghazala Hashmi called it “return[ing] the power back to the people.”
Attorney General Jason Miyares issued an opinion, which he concluded with the following passage:
“Allowing an amendment proposed while a general election is underway to be referred for consideration during the following regular session– here the 2026 regular session– undermines the voice of Virginia voters in the amendment process and violates foundational principles of Virginia constitutional law.”
The opinion states that, in much the same way that “midnight” is “tomorrow,” if one is forced to the point of pedantry, the “next election” in Virginia is in 2027. The General Assembly, in Miyares’ estimation, does not have the right to pass redistricting measures in the waning hours of the current session.
Minority Leader Terry Kilgore has lawyered up on behalf of the House Republicans in order to quash the Democrats’ efforts to reapportion large chunks of the Commonwealth’s reliably blue enclaves. In a press conference held during the break, Kilgore’s remarks echo those made by Miyares— “Clearly there’s a violation of Virginia Code 30-13(…), and they are also violating the rule that, constitutionally, the elections are already underway.”
The maps themselves are a point of ire for Kilgore, as well.
“There’s over a million Virginia voters that have already voted, and they can’t go back and say ‘Wait, that might have changed my mind’. For example, Virginia Beach, if you look at some of these maps, some of these seats in Virginia Beach would be taken by Northern Virginia legislators, the way some are thinking about the maps to be drawn.”
The “some” to which Kilgore is referring may include one State Senator Louise Lucas, who has been posting memes, map making schemes, and everything in between. Digital mapmakers across the country have been cutting up parts of Richmond and Northern Virginia to draw 9-2 and 10-1 maps of the Commonwealth and posting them to X.
In an interview on Wednesday with WTOP, State Senator Scott Surovell was adamant that the Amendment will not undermine any kind of popular will or dissolve the bipartisan map-making commission that meets every decade to draw new maps.
“The Amendment says if another state chooses to disregard America’s 250 year old redistricting process and ignore it, that the Virginia General Assembly can also step in and take action to respond with what other states do, so we’re on an equal playing field with people in other states. That’s what it does. It does not repeal the commission.”
The status of the lawsuit filed by members of the House Republican Caucus is ongoing, according to local sources.
On Friday, the Virginia State Senate approved the amendment after nearly three hours of debate among members on both sides of the aisle.
Majority Leader Scott Surovell parried questions from State Senators Glenn Sturtevant, Tara Durant, Mark Peake, and Ryan McDougle as they warned against the Democrats’ push to put the amendment on the ballot this Tuesday.
Senator Sturtevant argues that putting an amendment on the ballot when millions have already voted would deprive those who voted early of a way to reject or deny the amendment.
“This proposed amendment, it’s not just bad policy, it’s a violation of process, it’s a violation of principle, it’s a violation of trust,”
“And what’s worse is it’s being done in the middle of an election(…) It’s not transparency, it’s a power grab, it’s been rushed, it’s been secretive, and it’s purposely timed to avoid accountability in this election. Now, if we care about the integrity of our elections, about the rule of law, about the message that we send to the people of Virginia, [then] we must reject this amendment.”
In his remarks before the Senate, Democrat Schuyler VanValkenburg advocated for a new strategy to redraw maps before the next census, for which the Amendment itself does not specifically call–
“I don’t think our amendment is perfect. Personally, I would prefer an independent commission, without legislators, and I hope that we will see the language for that before the next census. But after the qualified success of the last process, and with the more balanced maps that came out of the 2022 process. I also believe, like some of my colleagues on the other side, that the commission will be smoother in 2031. Because if it’s not, we know that the courts will make it smooth for us.”
The courts will be involved, one way or another; in addition to the lawsuit filed by members of the House Republican Caucus on Wednesday, several clerks filed an additional lawsuit on Friday on similar grounds.
Virginians will have a chance to vote on the amendment this Friday. The fate of the maps will ultimately be decided in the next session, which begins in January.
