Virginia Supreme Court Discards Democrat Gerrymander Plan

Virginia Supreme Court Blocks Partisan Gerrymandering Efforts

The Virginia Supreme Court recently dismissed a questionable attempt by state Democrats to manipulate the 2026 midterm elections through an unconstitutional gerrymander plan.

According to the court’s ruling, the Virginia General Assembly had moved forward with a proposed constitutional amendment on March 6, 2026, which sought to allow partisan gerrymandering of federal congressional districts. The court determined that the legislative process used for this proposal violated Article 12, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution.

Furthermore, the court stated, “This constitutional violation irreparably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal validity.”

This decision means that Virginia will maintain its existing congressional districts, which consist of six Democratic districts and five Republican districts.

If the partisan efforts by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger had succeeded, it could have led to the elimination of four Republican districts, resulting in a considerable 10-to-1 Democratic advantage in the upcoming elections—a significant shift in a state where President Trump garnered 46% of the vote. The state Supreme Court referred to this as a clear infringement of the state constitution.

The court specifically pointed out that Spanberger and her party neglected certain constitutional procedures required for holding a redistricting referendum.

“Article 12, Section 1 aims to slow the amendment process to avoid rash changes to federal laws,” the court remarked, noting that the General Assembly must vote in favor of an amendment twice during separate sessions, with elections in between. This stipulation allows voters two chances to weigh in on the amendment: indirectly during the elections and directly thereafter.

For context, the timeline for this process included early voting for the general election starting on September 19, 2025, and concluding on November 4, 2025. The General Assembly’s initial vote to present the constitutional amendments to voters took place on October 31, 2025—after which over 1.3 million votes had already been cast.

The Commonwealth argued that the term “general election” in Article 12(1) refers solely to November 4, the official election day. Therefore, since that date fell four days after the legislative vote on October 31, they claimed that there was interference with the election process during the special election of 2024.

For any gerrymandering schemes to take place, state constitutions would require amendments through a referendum, necessitating two separate votes in the state legislature, which must occur between elections. However, the Democrats attempted to bypass this process by suggesting that the early voting should be regarded as separate from the actual election vote.