Trump started gerrymandering ‘fiasco’ in Virginia, Carville and Hunt agree

Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville and podcast co-host Al Hunt analyzed the results of Virginia’s redistricting vote, agreeing that President Donald Trump has started a redistricting war.

Democrats scored a landslide victory Tuesday when Virginia voters narrowly passed a congressional redistricting referendum that could give the party a significant boost in its bid to win a U.S. House majority in the 2026 midterm elections, the Associated Press reported.

The ballot measure gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature, instead of the state’s current nonpartisan commission, temporary redistricting authority through the 2030 elections. That could lead to a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, down from the current 6-5 lead.

Hunt complained on “Political War Room” that vote redistricting was a terrible thing; even though he personally supported this as a politically pragmatic necessity.

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“This is a terrible outcome. Virginia is a blue state, but it’s not a 90% blue state,” he said. “But Democrats had no choice. This was all due to Donald Trump, who last year, desperate to avoid losing the House of Representatives, demanded that Republicans gerrymander in Texas and elsewhere and said they would try to fix the elections. He failed to calculate that Democrats would react just as brutally, especially in California and Virginia.”

“I think the result in Virginia was terrible,” Hunt emphasized. “I would vote for it even though I think it’s terrible. They did it by referendum. Voters made the decision instead of backroom deals like they did in Texas and Missouri and other places.”

Suggesting that might be acceptable to Republicans, he advised: “Tell them to look at North Carolina next door, which is a purple, slightly red state.” [that] He gerrymandered congressional districts for what was expected to be an 11-3 advantage.”

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Political commentator James Carville stands at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, ahead of the Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2024. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

“Let me tell you, 11-3 in North Carolina is just as bad as 10-1 in Virginia,” he said. “Trump, who only cares about himself, started this whole damn fiasco, and in the end I think it might do the Democrats more good than him.”

“Well, you should also blame the Supreme Court,” Carville said. “I mean, I hate to bring in the bad news, but the great American institution called the Supreme Court said, ‘OK, there’s no equal protection. There’s nothing. The legislature can do whatever it wants.'”

“The court has become so discredited, so unpopular, look at the polls. I’m not the only one who believes the court needs to be saved from itself. It’s gotten that bad,” Carville said. “But these are the people who are chasing this with this 11-to-3 nonsense, as if voters shouldn’t have equal protection during redistricting.”

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James Carville and co-host Al Hunt agreed that President Donald Trump’s actions have set off a cynical redistricting arms race between the two parties. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Politicon; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I have no idea how you come up with the theory that legal theory might work, but they say it does,” Carville said. “They’re corrupt. They have no ethics, no code of conduct, no nothing.”

Hunt suggested that politics now looks like a stalemate, with both sides fearing “unilateral disarmament” and opting instead for cynical power plays such as gerrymandering.

“The problem with this is when you let politicians choose their voters, rather than voters choosing their politicians, you create politicians who have little incentive to govern or compromise,” he said. “So it’s a terrible system, but this year it was all started by Donald Trump.”

“Yes,” agreed Carville. “I think the Supreme Court did its part, but yeah, this wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Trump.”

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Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger speaks during a Virginians for Fair Elections campaign event on April 18, 2026 in Woodbridge, Virginia. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and cited the following statement from RNC national press secretary Kiersten Pels:

“46% of Virginians voted for Republicans in the last federal election, but Democrats are rigging the system to cling to power and silence voters they cannot win. This map is an unconstitutional, partisan power grab designed to disenfranchise millions of voters and shift the playing field. Abigail Spanberger broke her promise to Virginians by pushing a gerrymandered map that served her party’s interests after promising not to. The RNC will continue this fight. Virginia voters in court to protect and ensure fair representation throughout the Commonwealth.”

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser, Jasmine Baehr and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.