Democrats in the General Assembly have reached an agreement on a final 10-1 congressional redistricting proposal to go before voters in a referendum.
“We made a promise to level the playing field, and today we’re keeping our promise,” Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said during a press conference with Speaker of the House Don Scott, D-Portsmouth. “We said 10-1 and we meant it. We are proud to deliver a map that stands up for democracy, to stand up for Virginians, to stand up and give us a voice.”
Scott and Lucas said Gov. Abigail Spanberger saw the map before the announcement.
“We wouldn’t be standing if the governor had not seen the maps,” Scott said.
In a statement to Virginia Scope, a spokesperson for Spanberger said state election administrators told the governor that these maps can be implemented before primary day.
“The Governor’s priority has been upholding the integrity of Virginia’s elections, and her team has been working throughout this process to make sure any proposed map could actually be implemented on the quick timeline before elections administrators,” a spokesperson for the governor said.
Senate Republicans quickly pushed back after the announcement.
“Democrats are focused on political gerrymandering instead of focusing on affordability,” said Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle.
Lucas and Scott emphasized that this effort is in response to President Donald Trump calling on Republican states to redraw districts to net them more seats in Congress.
“This is about leveling the playing field across the country,” Scott said. “Republicans are gerrymandering maps to override the will of the voters. We just saw it in Texas, North Carolina and Missouri at Donald Trump’s direction. They’re manipulating election maps because they know they can’t win on their agenda in 2026, so instead of changing their ideas, they’re trying to rig the system.”
Republicans have repeatedly said, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“I don’t think anybody in this room lives in Texas or in another state,” McDougle said Thursday. “We live in Virginia, Virginians went to the polls. They voted on a redistricting process that is nonpartisan.”
Democrats still have legal obstacles before moving forward with the referendum.
A Tazewell Circuit Court judge recently ruled that the Democrats did not legally propose this constitutional amendment to redraw congressional districts.
Democrats quickly appealed, and the Court of Appeals of Virginia forwarded the appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, is one of the lawyers on the Republicans’ case. He said it is a new feature that the appeals court can just refer a case to the Supreme Court.
“I’ve never seen it before,” Stanley said in an interview. “I was surprised when it happened, and it slows down the process a little bit. But it demonstrates, at least, I think, in the minds of the judges in the Court of Appeals, that there’s a very serious issue that needs to be dealt with by the Supreme Court.”