Campaign signage showing Virginia’s current electoral map alongside the proposed electoral map at a Republican Party volunteer table outside a polling location at Burke Centre Library in Burke, Virginia, US, on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
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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.
A member of the public holds a “Democracy Needs Your Courage” sign during a special legislative session at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee, US, on Wednesday, May 6, 2026.
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The Virginia decision comes less than 24 hours after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed into law a new map that would eliminate the state’s only Democrat-held district. Other Southern states, including Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina have also taken steps to eliminate majority-minority, Democrat-held districts after the U.S. Supreme Court hollowed out a provision of the Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult to prove instances of racial gerrymandering.
Rep. Steve Cohen, the Memphis Democrat who represented the Tennessee district that would be eliminated, vowed to sue over the new map. And Democrats generally have said they will continue to fight.
“This is a setback that sends a terrible message to Americans – the powerful and elite will do everything they can to silence you,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement Friday about the Virginia ruling. “House Democrats will not let this happen. Our democracy was founded on the belief that the people have the final say. In November, they will, and they’ll power Democrats to the House majority.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement that Democrats are “exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision.”
With legislative minorities in the House and Senate and Trump in the White House, Democrats are limited in what they can do, though they’ve advocated for the passage of legislation to modernize the Voting Rights Act and strengthen legal protections against discriminatory voting practices and policies.
Jeffries earlier this week also announced a new initiative to push for Democratic redistricting of New York, though any such effort would apply to the 2028 elections at the earliest.
“No matter what it takes, House Democrats will win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans,” Jeffries said on Friday.