The effort was approved by voters 51.5% to 48.5%
Voters in Virginia on Tuesday backed a new congressional map that could flip as many as four Republican-held seats, giving Democrats a boost in November’s midterm elections. Democrats currently hold six of Virginia’s 11 House seats. The redistricting referendum, approved 51.5% to 48.5%, endorses a 10-1 map passed by the Democratic-led General Assembly that would remain in effect until 2030.
The new Virginia map put Democrats “slightly ahead in the national mid-decade gerrymandering wars,” Politico said, an outcome “few thought possible when President Donald Trump picked the fight by pushing Texas Republicans to redraw their map last summer.” Virginia voters told pollsters “they generally opposed partisan gerrymandering,” The Washington Post said, but “many said they were willing to approve it for a limited time to send an extraordinary message to the White House.”
Trump sat out of the campaign until the end. “This is really a country election,” he told a tele-rally on Monday. Democrats did not “roll over and play dead” in the gerrymander fight, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “When they go low, we hit back hard.”
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.