Virginia Senate approves constitutional amendment for redistricting

The Virginia State Senate on Friday gave the green light to a constitutional amendment that would clear the way for the Democrat-controlled legislature to redraw the state’s U.S. House maps ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

The move by state senators, following a similar vote in the state House on Wednesday, was the final step needed to send the amendment to Virginia voters. If the ballot measure is approved this spring, the legislature, instead of the current nonpartisan commission, would redraw the state’s congressional maps through 2030.

Virginia is the latest battleground in the ongoing high-stakes fight between President Donald Trump and Republicans and Democrats to change congressional maps ahead of the November election. Virginia Democrats, who now control six of the state’s 11 U.S. House districts, are also aiming to pick up four more left-leaning seats.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) called Friday’s development “a critical step in giving Virginia voters the opportunity to ensure their fair and equal representation in Congress.”

NEXT BATTLEFIELDS IN HIGH-Stakes MAP BATTLES

“Donald Trump and Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the midterms in their favor through unprecedented fraud in the middle of the decade,” DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene said, arguing: “Virginians, not politicians, will now have the opportunity to vote for a temporary, emergency exception that will restore justice, level the playing field, and stand up to extremists who seek to silence their voices.”

But the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus accused state Senate Democrats of passing “a partisan amendment to cement their party in power.”

And the Republican National Committee (RNC) called it a “power grab.”

“This is just the latest example of Democrats’ decades-long campaign to gerrymander in every state where they gain power,” RNC national press secretary Kiersten Pels said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This is exactly why red states are struggling to level the playing field after states like Illinois, New York and California draw their districts to disenfranchise Republicans.”

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Virginia Democratic lawmakers have indicated they will release a proposed map later this month.

And on Thursday, a Democratic-aligned nonprofit called “Virginians for Fair Elections” was launched to encourage voters to vote in favor of the voting redistricting measure.

Trump, aiming to prevent what happened in his first term in the White House when Democrats regained the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections, first floated the rare but not unheard-of idea of ​​redistricting Congress in the middle of the decade last spring.

President Donald Trump has called on Republican-controlled states to pass congressional redistricting resolutions ahead of the midterm elections in November. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The mission was simple: Redraw congressional district maps in red states to shore up the GOP’s slim House majority to maintain control of the chamber in midterm elections where the party in power traditionally faces political adversity and loses seats.

Trump’s first target was Texas.

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Asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning seats in the House of Representatives nationwide, the president said, “Texas will be the largest. And that will be five.”

Republican Governor Greg Abbott Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers who broke the quorum for two weeks while fleeing Texas in an attempt to delay passage of the redistricting bill have energized Democrats across the country.

Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at an election night press conference at the California Democratic Party office in Sacramento, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, following the congressional passage of the redistricting referendum. (Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo)

California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50 in November, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidelined the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to assign congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

This is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, aimed at countering Texas’ move to redraw its maps.

The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio, as well as swing state North Carolina where the GOP dominates the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president’s push.

And Florida Republicans hope to pick up an additional three to five seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session in April, a move pushed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers.

In a blow to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternative that would create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterm elections.

In December, Republicans in the Indiana Senate also defied Trump and rejected redistricting legislation passed by the state House.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith announces the results of the vote to redistrict the state’s congressional map on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. (Michael Conroy/AP Photo)

But Trump scored a major victory when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court gave the green light to a new map of Texas.

Other states that could step into the redistricting battle are Illinois and Maryland, which are Democratic majorities, and Kentucky and Kansas, two red states with Democratic governors.

The Supreme Court, weighing on redistricting battles, is expected to decide Louisiana v. Callais, a landmark case that could overturn a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.

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If the decision goes in favor of conservatives on the high court, it could lead to a redrawing of majority-minority districts across the county, which would heavily favor Republicans.

However, it is still very unclear when the court will decide and what it will actually do.