(RICHMOND, Va.) — Voters in Virginia head to the polls Tuesday to vote on a redistricting ballot measure referendum that could have major implications for the midterm elections.
The referendum will decide if the Democratic-controlled legislature should be allowed to redraw the state’s congressional map. That would allow the legislature to implement a map that would reconfigure four congressional seats to favor Democrats, which could have major implications for control of the U.S. House after November’s midterm election.
Democrats have said they need the measure in Virginia to pass in order to continue to counter previous mid-decade redistricting that benefited Republicans in Texas and other states. But Republicans have called it a power grab in a state that is relatively split even politically, and say it sidelines a redistricting commission voters previously approved.
Surrogates for both sides of the measure have been campaigning in full force ahead of election day, and President Donald Trump weighed in on Monday night in a rally held by telephone.
“This referendum is a blatant partisan power grab… if it passes, Virginia Democrats will eliminate four out of five congressional seats [held by Republicans in Virginia], so you’re going to get just wiped out in terms of representation in Washington,” Trump said on Monday.
But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a strong proponent of the measure, said earlier Monday that the redistricting was because of Trump, who encouraged Texas and other states to redistrict in 2025.
“We believe that it’s the voters of Virginia and the people of this country who should decide which party is in the majority… not Donald Trump and his extreme MAGA sycophants in state legislative bodies across the country who were ordered by Donald Trump to gerrymander the national congressional map as part of the effort to rig the midterm elections,” he told reporters on Monday.
During mid-decade redistricting in 2025, nine seats were redrawn to benefit Republicans, while six seats were redrawn to benefit Democrats. If Democrats add four seats to their count, then Democrats might only net one new seat if all seats flip as expected in November. But Florida is also set to consider mid-decade redistricting, which is expected to help Republicans bolster their count.
In the Virginia election, the Democratic-supported side of the measure far outfundraised and outspent the main group supporting a “no” vote, according to campaign finance filings, although both sides raised and spent millions. As of April 10, Virginians for Fair Elections, the flagship organization campaigning in favor of redistricting, has raised over $64 million, while Virginians for Fair Maps Referendum Committee, the largest organization campaigning against redistricting, has raised under $20 million.
While Democrats framed many of their arguments in favor of the redraw as meant to counter Trump, the president himself did not campaign for the “no” side in person and did not engage much with the election until the day before Election Day.
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, asked by ABC News outside of an anti-redistricting campaign event in Leesburg, Virginia, on Monday if he thinks Trump or national Republicans should have gotten more involved with the race, downplayed the need for that, saying that the opposition to redistricting could go across party lines.
“I think what we’ve seen is that, first of all, it’s been a grassroots effort across the Commonwealth,” Youngkin told ABC News. “There are so many [vote] ‘no’ signs around the Commonwealth… and at the heart of it, that’s Virginians standing up, not just Republicans.”
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