{"id":521739,"date":"2026-01-17T02:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/521739\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T02:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T02:22:18","slug":"virginia-lawmakers-back-redrawing-congressional-maps-paving-way-for-voter-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/521739\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia lawmakers back redrawing congressional maps, paving way for voter referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia voters will decide whether to back a redrawn district map that favors Democrats in the tit-for-tat battle for the U.S. House after the left-leaning Senate advanced a proposed constitutional amendment<\/a> on Friday that supports mid-decade congressional redistricting.<\/p>\n

Such a congressional map has not been publicly released, though lawmakers say that will change by the end of the month. Officials have repeatedly vowed that voters would see a proposed map before the referendum is held, likely in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this is a Virginian-led process and we\u2019re asking for their permission, voters will be able to see the maps prior to their vote,\u201d Democratic Del. Cia Price said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The closely divided state Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority, voted along party lines on Friday afternoon, following a similar vote by House Democrats earlier this week. <\/p>\n

Trump teed up an unusual redistricting plan last year and pushed Texas Republicans<\/a> to create more favorable districts for the party by way of new congressional maps. That triggered something of a mid-decade redistricting dogfight. <\/p>\n

Since then, Texas, Missouri and North Carolina all approved new Republican-friendly House districts. Ohio also enacted a more favorable House map for Republicans. <\/p>\n

On the Democratic side, California voters approved<\/a> new House districts helping Democrats, and a Utah judge<\/a> adopted a new House map that benefits Democrats.<\/p>\n

There have been some defections in the nationwide redistricting battle: Kansas Republicans dropped plans for a special session on redistricting. Indiana\u2019s Republican-led Senate also defeated a plan that could have helped the GOP win all of the state\u2019s U.S. House seats.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still up in the air as to whether new maps will be created in other states, such as Republican-leaning Florida, and Democratic-led Illinois and Maryland.<\/p>\n

The redistricting battle has resulted, so far, in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win and six more seats that Democrats think they can win, putting the GOP up by three. However, redistricting is being litigated in several states, and there is no guarantee that the parties will win the seats they have redrawn.<\/p>\n

In Virginia, the redistricting resolution sparked raucous debate among lawmakers on the merits of gerrymandering a battleground state known to have independent voters, particularly after a recent years-long push for fair maps in the state. <\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell said when Republican-led states \u201crig elections in their favor, our commitment to fairness that we made \u2014 that our voters made \u2014 effectively becomes unilateral disarmament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virginia Republicans have admonished Democrats’ redistricting efforts, arguing gerrymandering isn’t the answer. Republican Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle said, \u201cRepublicans in Indiana stood up to political pressure and said, \u2018We\u2019re not going to play these political games.\u2019 And they stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n

The state currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who ran in districts whose boundaries were imposed by a court<\/a> after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map<\/a> after the census. <\/p>\n

That commission came about following a 2020 referendum<\/a>, in which voters supported a change to the state’s constitution aimed at ending legislative gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

The new proposed constitutional amendment, if backed by voters, would only be in effect until 2030. The resolution also has trigger language, meaning Virginia lawmakers can only redraw congressional maps if such action is taken by other states. <\/p>\n

In January, Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger backed Democrats’ redistricting effort but has not committed to a particular plan. <\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, it\u2019s up to the people of Virginia to choose whether or not to move forward with the referendum,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America<\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia voters will decide whether to back a redrawn district map that favors Democrats in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":521740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[232180,347,90,57,74652,50,80,22204,27604,61,67,132,68,333],"class_list":{"0":"post-521739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-232180","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-midterm-elections","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-redistricting","17":"tag-referendums","18":"tag-u-s-news","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-voting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115908060376030939","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521739","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=521739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}