Dem
47
GOP
53
The gods of redistricting giveth, and the gods of redistricting taketh away. Just days after the Democrats got pretty good news out of New York on that front (the district of Republican Nicole Malliotakis is about to get much swingier), they got bad news out of Virginia, as a judge put a stop to plans to redraw the state's maps.
Virginia state law makes it pretty hard to re-draw district maps, beyond the one time per decade required by the Constitution. This is because redrawing maps mid-decade is invariably very partisan, and perhaps a little sleazy (or, perhaps a LOT sleazy). Specifically, if it is going to happen in the Old Dominion State, two consecutive legislative sessions have to sign off. The Democrats wangled approval #1 during a special session last October, and then passed approval #2 earlier this month. At that point, Democrats across the land started daydreaming about the roughly three seats they expected to acquire via more aggressive gerrymandering.
The daydreams are over, at least for now. Yesterday, Tazewell County circuit court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that the Democrats did not follow the correct procedures for adopting a new district map. He raised several problems in his ruling, but the biggest one was that by the time Democrats voted for the change last October, early voting in Virginia had already begun. What the statute actually says is that map changes have to be approved both before and after any one election. And since the legislature did not vote until October, the "before" part of that was not fulfilled.
Virginia Democrats say they will appeal the decision, and we have no doubt they will, because why not give it a try? But Hurley is a seasoned jurist, and his ruling is both clear and thorough. We are not exactly experts on the finer points of Virginia election law, but it looks very much like the blue team blew it here. They can change the maps for 2028, if they want to, but they're probably out of luck for 2026. (Z)