Virginia voters head to the polls to weigh redistricting referendum
Virginia voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday to weigh in on Democrat-backed redistricting plan that Republicans have condemned as a "power grab." The battle is part of a national race to rewrite congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections
Trump urges Virginia voters to reject 'blatant partisan power grab' by Democrats
President Donald Trump is urging Virginians going to the polls Tuesday to reject a redistricting ballot measure that could hand Democrats as many as four House seats in November, a large haul with House Republicans hanging onto a slim majority.
"This referendum is a blatant partisan power grab that nobody’s really ever seen anything like it," Trump told a telerally call with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday night, The Hill reported.
Just say "no" to Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger's push, he added.
"It’s the liberal extremist Gov. Abigail Spanberger, too bad, and the far-left Democrats in Richmond after Spanberger promised Virginia voters that she would never do this," he told the call. "And if it passes, Virginia Democrats will eliminate four out of five congressional seats, so you’re going to get just wiped out in terms of representation in Washington.
"That’s what it’s all about. Please get out and vote and vote no. It’s very simple," the president added. "Just vote no."
Virginia has moved to push through a new map before the 2026 midterms, something that would not otherwise happen before the 2030 census.
Democrats currently hold six of the 11 House seats in Virginia, a state that narrowly went for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, but the new map would hand the Democrats a huge 10-1 advantage.
Among the nearly 6 million registered voters in the state of Virginia, Democrats do have an edge, but not one that wide. The state is majority Democrat (51.24%), but Republicans (30.56%) and independents (18.2%) are both well represented, according to Independent Voter Project data.
"We have to stand up for fair maps and we have to vote no," Johnson told the call.
"As your speaker of the House, I see firsthand every single day how all five of those members are leading the fight on things like lowering costs and securing our borders and making Virginia and America great again," he said. "And we need to return all five of them to Congress this November."
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Eric Mack.
Dark money floods Virginia ahead of redistricting vote that could hand Democrats House edge
Tens of millions of dollars — much of it dark money from undisclosed donors — poured into Virginia this year ahead of Tuesday's vote on a congressional redistricting referendum that, if passed, could give Democrats a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House majority in this year's midterm elections.
If the ballot measure is successful, it would give the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state's current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia's congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.
The referendum, which follows President Donald Trump's push for rare but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states, could give Democrats an edge as they try to win back control of the House from Republicans, who are defending a fragile majority.
Supporters of redistricting have dramatically outraised and outspent groups opposed to the referendum, with Democrat-aligned Virginians for Fair Elections raising roughly three times as much as GOP-allied Virginians for Fair Maps. But despite the Democrats' funding advantage, public opinion polling suggests support for the ballot initiative is only slightly ahead of opposition amid a surge in early voting, which ended Saturday.
"They have outspent us three to one. They’ve raised over $70 million. And yet this is a close vote," former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, one of leaders of the GOP effort to defeat the referendum, told Fox News Digital on the eve of the election.
Much of the funding raised by both sides came from so-called "dark money" from nonprofit public policy groups known as 501(c)(4) organizations that are not required to disclose their donors. This according to a Fox News Digital review of state campaign finance records and records from the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), which tracks public spending in Virginia.
"It points to the importance of this referendum," David Richards, political science chair at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia, told Fox News Digital, as he highlighted the influx of outside money pouring into the state.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Paul Steinhauser.
Brit Hume: Virginia redistricting is not about fairness, but ‘power’
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume discussed Virginia’s congressional redistricting plans in an appearance on "Special Report" on Monday.
Hume argued Democrats were involved in a blatant push to secure more "power" in Congress, blasting Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
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