{"id":520976,"date":"2026-01-16T18:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520976\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T18:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:44:12","slug":"virginia-democrats-set-up-a-referendum-to-try-to-flip-as-many-as-4-gop-held-us-house-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/520976\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Democrats set up a referendum to try to flip as many as 4 GOP-held US House seats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Virginia on Friday became the latest state to escalate the nationwide redistricting battle<\/a> ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections that will determine which party controls the US House during the final two years of President Donald Trump\u2019s time in office.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats who control the state Senate moved forward on a proposed constitutional amendment on redistricting, setting up a referendum as soon as April \u2013 similar to California\u2019s 2025 ballot initiative<\/a> \u2013 on whether to enact a new US House map in time for the midterms.\n <\/p>\n

\n Friday\u2019s 21-18 vote in the state Senate creates another high-profile and expensive contest over redistricting, the latest salvo in a mid-decade redistricting fight began last year in Texas at Trump\u2019s behest<\/a> in an effort to gain more seats that are favorable to Republicans.\n <\/p>\n

\n So far, that fight has yielded nine more GOP-friendly seats and six that favor Democrats. While Virginia Democrats have not yet released the map they want to enact, party leaders have talked about flipping as many as four Republican-held US House seats, a potentially critical margin.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t about payback, it\u2019s about restoring and preserving balance to our system,\u201d Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, the chamber\u2019s top Democrat, said during Friday\u2019s debate. Redistricting in Republican states, Surovell argued, has hurt \u201cVirginia\u2019s ability to have its fair representation in Congress.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Republican lawmakers argued Democrats were undermining fair map-making.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democratic legislators are telling voters \u201cwe want to redraw the lines so that you will vote just exactly the way we want you to,\u201d said GOP Sen. Christopher Head. \u201cThat\u2019s not democracy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Friday\u2019s action kicks off a high-profile campaign to sway voters.\n <\/p>\n

\n A Democratic-aligned organization, Virginians for Fair Elections, this week launched its public push to mobilize. Meanwhile, Virginians for Fair Maps, a GOP group whose leaders include former US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, is vowing to fight the redistricting effort and is still trying to block action by Virginia Democrats in court.\n <\/p>\n

\n Neither group has publicly released fundraising goals, but the coming confrontation mirrors last year\u2019s redistricting fight in California that saw Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> raise more than $100 million for a redistricting ballot measure. In the end, Californians overwhelmingly backed a map promoted by Newsom that made five US House seats friendlier to Democrats.\n <\/p>\n

\n Virginia, like California, must take the redistricting issue to voters because their state constitutions give independent commissions, rather than lawmakers, the power to draw congressional maps.\n <\/p>\n

\n Virginia represents the largest remaining redistricting prize for Democrats, but political figures in the state are still wrangling over how aggressively to target Republicans in their map-drawing.\n <\/p>\n

\n Democrats currently control six of the state\u2019s 11 US House seats and entered 2026 emboldened by big victories in last year\u2019s elections that saw the party flip the governor\u2019s office and grow its majority in the House of Delegates.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some lawmakers favor a maximalist approach. Virginia Senate Pro Tem Louise Lucas has spent months taunting Republicans with social media posts promising to draw the GOP out of all but one seat.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI said in August of 2025 that the maps will be 10-1 and I\u2019m sticking with that today,\u201d the Democrat wrote recently on X. \u201cAnyone in the Congressional delegation who wants a seat needs to campaign for it and not expect a safe seat.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Virginia House Speaker Don Scott also has said he\u2019s open to a 10-1 map.\n <\/p>\n

\n But some prefer a map that would cluster Republican voters into two districts, giving Democrats more secure margins of victory in nine.\n <\/p>\n

\n So far, efforts by Virginia Republicans to block Democrats\u2019 actions in court have been unsuccessful. Another court hearing is set for next week.\n <\/p>\n

\n Michael Young, a veteran GOP strategist working with the Virginians for Fair Maps, said Republicans planned to fight Democrats \u201cin any available venue if they continue to pursue this lawless power grab.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In their early messaging on the Virginia referendum, Democratic groups are taking a cue from the successful California campaign and framing the effort as a short-term measure, that will restore the power over map-drawing to an independent redistricting commission in 2030.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe wish we didn\u2019t have to take this step,\u201d Keren Charles Dongo, a longtime aide to Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine who is leading the campaign, said in a statement. \u201cBut with Donald Trump pressuring MAGA-controlled legislatures to rig their maps, this temporary, emergency exception will keep Virginia\u2019s elections fair until every state plays by the same rules \u2014 and make sure the people, not politicians, decide how Virginia\u2019s voice is heard in Congress.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In interviews, Democrats pointed to potential action in Florida \u2013 where Republicans could target as many as five Democratic seats \u2013 as added incentive for Virginia voters to draw new lines. Florida\u2019s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently called a special session on redistricting.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cVirginia voters are being given the opportunity to unstack the deck,\u201d said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which has backed progressive ballot measures around the country and is supporting the new Virginia campaign.\n <\/p>\n

\n She declined to say how much money her organization is committing to the Virginia redistricting push.\n <\/p>\n

\n Virginia\u2019s Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who will be sworn into office Saturday, has had a more muted response to the redistricting effort. At a recent public appearance, she noted that she carried two of the Republican-held districts in her landslide victory last November and expected to flip those seats in this year\u2019s midterms, even without new lines.\n <\/p>\n

\n There are key differences between deep-blue California and Virginia, where Democrats are flexing newfound political powers. Notably, Newsom \u2013 who is term-limited and a potential 2028 presidential contender \u2013 emerged as the public face of the redistricting campaign, investing his own political capital in his party\u2019s efforts to flip the US House.\n <\/p>\n

\n A Spanberger spokesperson did not respond to a CNN inquiry.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI doubt that (Spanberger) wants to make her first opening months in office being at the center of this partisan fight over redistricting,\u201d said Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of Sabato\u2019s Crystal Ball, a newsletter published by University of Virginia\u2019s Center for Politics.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Hall, whose group has backed dozens of successful ballot efforts since 2016, said having a well-known political figure headline the campaign, as Newsom did, is \u201can exception to the rule.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not necessary for the success of a ballot measure effort,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virginia on Friday became the latest state to escalate the nationwide redistricting battle ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":520977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[50,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-520976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115906259458098482","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}