This story was reported and written by VPM News.
A judge in Tazewell County said in a ruling Tuesday that Virginia Democrats in the General Assembly didn't follow state law as they attempted to redraw congressional districts in time for the 2026 federal midterms.
It complicates state-level efforts to counter a national redistricting push led by Republican President Donald Trump, stopping them for now in the commonwealth.
Nationwide, it also raises the question if Democrats will be able to draw enough seats to counter Trump's push. The GOP has a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives, and the president has already successfully pushed for Texas, Missouri and North Carolina to redistrict in order to win seats now held by Democrats. They have also been able to change more seats than Democrats have been able to nationwide.
Only a few states that have Republicans in Congress but Democrats controlling the state legislature are out there; Virginia's own congressional delegation is currently nine Democrats and five Republicans.
Republican legislators, who brought the case, called the ruling "a decisive victory."
"This case was never about partisanship. It was about process, fairness, and the simple principle that you cannot change the Constitution by ignoring the Constitution," said Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle and House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore. "The court made clear that elections matter, notice matters, and the rules apply to everyone—even those in power."
Democrat leaders in both General Assembly chambers said Tuesday's ruling would not stop them from moving forward.
"Republicans who can't win at the ballot box are abusing the legal process in an attempt to sow confusion and block Virginians from voting. We will be appealing this ruling immediately and we expect to prevail," said the joint statement issued by House Speaker Don Scott, Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke and House Democratic Caucus Chair Kathy Tran. "This was court-shopping, plain and simple. We're prepared for the next step, and voters – not politicians – will have the final say."
State Democrats have already proposed and this week passed a bill scheduling an April 21 referendum date. It would come as the Florida Legislature, controlled by Republicans, meets on redistricting.
The proposed amendment itself gives Virginia state lawmakers limited authority to bypass the 10-year redistricting cycle — and the state's own redistricting commission — but only in response to gerrymandering efforts in another state first.
Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley ruled in favor of a number of Republicans' challenges to the redistricting effort, saying that Democrats strayed from legal and legislative processes.
The conflict stems from Virginia's constitutional amendment process. It requires the General Assembly to pass a text of a constitutional amendment twice: once before an election of the House of Delegates, then again with the same text after that election.
After that, voters approve or reject the amendment in a ballot referendum.
Democrats hastily convened meetings of the Legislature in October, just weeks before Election Day, where they narrowly passed the proposed text of the redistricting amendment known as HJ6007. At that time, Hurley denied Virginia Republicans' request to block the special session from occurring.
In his latest ruling, Hurley wrote that since voting had already begun due to Virginia's early voting period, the General Assembly would need to wait until after the 2027 general election to pass the amendment text a second time — essentially punting the statewide vote to 2028.
Hurley also ruled that congressional redistricting was improperly added to the scope of business of the 2025 October meetings. Democrats in the Legislature had used a special session dating back to 2024, which was originally initially set to discuss the state's budget for fiscal years 2025–26.
Republicans also argued that the General Assembly's early passage of the amendment days before Election Day 2025 didn't allow for compliance with a state law requiring the physical posting of an amendment's text in every locality 90 days before an election.
As VPM News has previously reported, Virginia's last redistricting took place in 2023 following a contentious mapmaking process that was ultimately overseen by the Supreme Court of Virginia. That general election led to Democrats narrowly taking control of both General Assembly chambers during the second half of Youngkin's term.
Partisan gerrymandering — the deliberate drawing of an election map to favor a specific political party — was ruled on by the US Supreme Court as constitutional in 2019.
With its strengthened majority in the House, the Democrat-controlled Legislature approved HJ6007 earlier this month when the 2026 session opened. State lawmakers were scheduled to present draft redistricting maps this Friday; it's not immediately clear how this ruling will affect that.
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