Virginia Supreme Court Kills Democrat Redistricting Effort 

The hits really don’t stop coming. As if the Supreme Court’s decision to gut the Voting Rights Act last week wasn’t bad enough, on Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Democratic-led redistricting effort was unconstitutional. 

AP News reports that, in a 4-3 ruling, the court found that state Democrats violated the procedural requirements to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. “This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court wrote in its order. Should the map have been approved, it would’ve given Democrats four extra House seats in the state. 

Virginia law requires any amendment to the state’s constitution to be voted on twice by the state legislature, once before an election and once after, before being placed to a public vote. The crux of the Republicans’ argument against the redistricting effort is that the first vote was held while the early voting period was already underway. Virginia voters approved the redistricting effort last month, but that vote was all for naught as a result of the court’s ruling.    

While it looked like Democrats had gained the edge in the nationwide redistricting battle, the last week has more or less wiped those gains away. Tennessee Republicans moved quickly to eliminate the state’s lone, majority-Black district in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling, giving Republicans an extra House seat. State legislatures in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are all looking into ways to redraw their maps to the GOP’s advantage. 

If there’s any hope to be had here, it’s that voters are increasingly negative toward President Donald Trump and the GOP at large. Despite Florida’s redistricting effort seemingly being set to pass, state legislators have quietly voiced concerns that a new map could stretch their voters thin and actually make the midterms harder for incumbents. 

Those concerns are also at play in Texas, where the GOP’s redistricting effort was largely built around the gains Trump made with Latino voters during the 2024 election. That demographic has largely soured against Trump, which has added some uncertainty to the midterms in Texas. The GOP can redraw the maps all they want, but if they keep making moves that only exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis, it may not matter.

At least, that’s what I hope. But as a wise man once said, hope is not a strategy. 

While I’ve gone on and on about the GOP’s tilt toward fascism, the events over the last week only drive home my overarching frustration with the Democratic Party. It was clear a decade ago that the modern Republican Party does not care about historical norms or even protecting democracy. Yet somehow, with a decade of foresight, the GOP has still caught us on the back foot. 

Establishment Democrats spent so much time trying to bend over backward to appeal to Republicans over the last two elections instead of taking steps to prevent the GOP from doing things like this. I understand the desire to end our hyperpolarization, but we also need to be clear-eyed about the future the GOP wants. The time to play nice ended in 2016; we needed to go for the jugular. Until the Democrats learn how to squabble, we’re just going to keep getting routed by a bunch of GOP weirdos.

SEE ALSO:

Judge Blocks Voter Referendum For Virginia Redistricting

Federal Judge Rules Virginia Redistricting Effort Is Illegal

Virginia’s Proposed Congressional Map Gives Dems 10-1 Advantage

Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down Democrats’ Redistricting Effort was originally published on newsone.com