by Andrew Kerley
Virginia Democrats have been left spinning after courts ruled that their six-month and $66 million effort to redistrict was illegal — leaving some candidates without a race to run in, and others jumping between districts.
The 2026 congressional midterms have been underscored by a redistricting war spanning from coast to coast. After President Donald Trump pressured Texas Republicans to redraw their district lines last Summer, Virginia Democrats responded by trying to enact their own mid-decade redistricting.
But the Virginia Supreme Court buried those plans by ruling that the referendum Virginia voters approved was void on a technicality. The United States Supreme Court then rejected the Democrats’ attempt to block that ruling.
Now, candidates across the commonwealth are picking up the pieces with less than three months until primary day.
LOBSTER BOILED: Candidates drop out in 7th to make way for Vindman
Virginia’s proposed 7th Congressional District was the most packed of all the primary races, with at least 13 Democrats and 5 Republicans, according to VPAP.
That was before courts struck down Democrats’ redistricting plans, which would have turned it into a lobster shape stretching from Arlington to Goochland.
Redistricting also would have moved Rep. Eugene Vindman to the 1st District — clearing the way for an array of Democrats to run in a district with no incumbent that Gov. Abigail Spanberger won by 17 points in November.
Vindman moved back to running in the 7th District after redistricting was canceled, and subsequently, all of the other big-name candidates dropped out.
Among them were former Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe, former federal prosecutor J.P. Cooney, Del. Dan Helmer, D-Fairfax, Del. Adele McClure, D-Arlington, Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Fairfax, and Del. Elizabeth Guzman, D-Manassas, the latter of whom already challenged Vindman in 2024.
Vindman, who has over $1.2 million cash on hand, is the presumptive nominee.
Helmer — who was held in consideration while the lobster district was being drawn — said he ran for the 7th District while it was open to help change control of Congress because of the Trump administration’s threats to democracy. He did not want to challenge an incumbent.
“I wasn’t trying to have a fight,” Helmer said.
Helmer said the General Assembly will have to reform Virginia’s top court and the judicial appointment process, including term limits, an enforceable ethics code and possibly adding new justices.
“The reality is that we expected the Supreme Court of Virginia to respect the constitution and the will of the people,” Helmer said. “They did not.”
Helmer was not surprised SCOTUS sided with Republicans right after they made changes to the Voting Rights Act, which opened the door for the party to redistrict in Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, among others.
“We will make sure that Justice Kelsey does not serve anymore come this January,” Helmer said.
Justice Arthur Kelsey, who authored the redistricting opinion against Democrats, will reach the end of his term in January.
Asked what will become of his over $573,000 in funds raised, Helmer, who is also the campaigns chair for the House Democratic Caucus, said he will continue to use his resources, support and infrastructure to elect Democrats in tough districts.
Perriello, Macy move back to the same old districts
In the Heartland and Blue Ridge areas, Democrats’ gerrymander would have turned the 5th and 6th districts from Republican-leaning to likely Democratic pickups.
For a moment, former Rep. Tom Perriello and “Dopesick” author Beth Macy, both of whom announced their candidacy after the October special session when redistricting began, were the top two contenders in the new 6th District, which strung together college towns from Charlottesville to Blacksburg.
Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor would have filled the Democratic slot in the 5th District against incumbent Republican Rep. John McGuire.
Now Taylor is back in the 1st District, and Perriello is back in the 5th District — while Macy stands at the top of the field to challenge Rep. Ben Cline, R-6th District.
Analysts have suggested Perriello could stand a chance against McGuire, who won his seat by 15 points in 2024. Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates the 5th District as “likely Republican” as of May 8.
Macy, on the other hand, is looking at a much tougher race as Cline won the 6th District with over 63% of the vote in 2024.
Some progressive challengers remain
In a year when a new wave of progressives are running across the country, redistricting would have strengthened left-of-center candidates to run in what used to be more purple districts.
Based on the 2025 gubernatorial election results, the least-blue of the new districts would still have given an 11-point advantage to Democrats.
VCU professor Alex Keena researches elections, voter representation, money in politics and redistricting. He said Democrats’ gerrymandering efforts have given an advantage to candidates with more money, and, with all the constraints, made it easier for the party to hand-pick their preferred contenders due to a lack of time.
“This whole disruption has been terrible for candidates who don’t raise a lot of money, who have to organize grassroots campaigns,” Keena said. “This is lost time. This is lost focus. They go from one constituency to another potential constituency only to go back, and it’s not a good look for anyone.”
In Virginia’s most Democratic district, former Alexandria City Councilman Mo Seifeldein is running a long-shot bid to unseat long-time Rep. Don Beyer, D-8th District. Seifeldein has criticized Beyer for voting like “Jeffries’ or Schumer’s intern” and is looking to stand out with policies such as Medicare for All.
The 1st and 2nd Districts, with or without redistricting, could be Democrats’ easiest pickups. If money is any indication, the party has already chosen its preferred candidates.
In the 2nd District, former Rep. Elaine Luria is attempting to reclaim her old seat — with recent backlash against incumbent Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-2nd District, only making that more likely.
Luria has raised over $2.8 million so far.
In the 1st District, Taylor — who lost last year’s attorney general nomination race to Jay Jones — has raised nearly $1.3 million since launching her campaign in September. She was among the names considered when Democrats were drawing new districts, as reported by Virginia Scope.
Both Luria and Taylor will first have to fend off multiple primary opponents. One of them, in the 1st District, is Salaam Bhatti, a public-interest lawyer who worked with the Virginia Poverty Law Center and has been running his campaign for almost an entire year.
Bhatti has raised $184,834, and picked up endorsements from Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, Del. Charlie Schmidt, D-Richmond and the 2020 and 2022 Democratic nominees for the district.
Bhatti has been a consistent presence at recent protests in Richmond. He is running as an anti-AIPAC, pro-Medicare for All, billionaire-taxing progressive.
Bhatti started his campaign in the 1st District, and would have been moved to the 5th District had redistricting gone through. Though his reasons for running have remained all the same.
“The families in this district need someone with experience who will fight for Medicare for all, tax billionaires so they pay at a rate just as much as working families, and prevent special and foreign interests from owning elected officials,” Bhatti stated. “All eyes will be on Virginia to flip CD-1, a district that has been neglected for years by the incumbent as his net worth grows into the millions. Our neighbors have been disenfranchised, we are righteously angry, and we are organizing to win the vote — again.”
Taylor, the presumed frontrunner, recently reaffirmed her run in the 1st District. She has earned endorsements from three Democratic governors of Virginia and nearly the entire Democratic congressional delegation.
“I got into this race to defeat career politician Rob Wittman and take on a broken Washington, and that has not changed,” Taylor stated in a recent press release. “Wittman has spent nearly two decades in Washington enriching himself while voting to raise costs and rip away health care. A court ruling does not erase that record. As Henrico’s top prosecutor, I have dedicated my career to keeping our community safe and I know how to take on tough fights and win. That’s exactly what we’re going to do in November.”
Time and money wasted
Shaun Kenney, a Republican strategist and former Virginia GOP director, said the notion that the courts overturned the state constitution and will of Virginians who voted in the redistricting referendum is false. In his view, half of Virginians should not wield 90% of the political power.
“The Supreme Court of Virginia gets to decide what is and what is not unconstitutional, not Hakeem Jeffries,” Kenney said.
Keena called Democrats’ redistricting efforts “six months of time that was totally wasted,” which could have been used to attack Republicans or make inroads in Republican-held districts.
Even with other states redistricting to help Republicans, Keena believes Virginia Democrats should not have pursued the same strategy to begin with.
“If you want to play that game of gerrymandering, Republicans will win that,” Keena said. “Democrats can’t compete. They can’t compete because there are legal barriers preventing them from gerrymandering, and we saw that here in Virginia.”
Keena said voters do not think about ideology the same way experts and consultants do. Instead, he thinks Democrats should run on issues that affect people’s everyday lives, and they should not shy away from popular, progressive policies perceived as extreme by those with money and power.
“Instead of worrying about the process and complaining that it wasn’t fair to them or complaining that ‘Republicans get to rig the maps but Democrats don’t’ and it’s a ‘double standard,’ they should actually run on issues that voters care about.”