The Supreme Court of Virginia said Friday it would allow a special election on redistricting to move forward this spring while a legal challenge to the process continues. That election, set for April 21, will ask voters whether they support redrawing the commonwealth’s congressional map ahead of elections this fall to give Democrats a chance to pick up as many as four new House seats. Earlier this week, Democratic legislators in Virginia approved a new map that could help their party win up to 10 of the commonwealth’s 11 House seats days after first unveiling the proposal. Virginia Democrats have framed their move as a counter to Republican-led redistricting efforts in other states. “Today’s order is a huge win for Virginia voters,” Dan Gottlieb, a spokesperson for Virginians for Fair Elections, a group that advocates redrawing the House map, said in a statement. “The Court made it clear that nothing in this case stops the April 21 referendum from moving forward and that Virginians will have the final say." A separate group, No Gerrymandering Virginia, announced its launch on Friday to urge voters to oppose the new map. The group’s bipartisan advisory council includes three Republicans — former Gov. and Sen. George Allen, former Virginia House Speaker William Howell and former Del. William Fralin — Democratic former state Sen. Chap Petersen and Brian Cannon, who pushed for Virginia to adopt an independent redistricting commission. “Thanks to the strong recent vote of the people, Virginia has much better standards of fairness than this,” Allen said in a launch statement, seeming to refer to a 2020 ballot initiative that established the commonwealth’s bipartisan redistricting committee. “We must stand above these sorts of political election-rigging schemes.” The approval to move forward with the referendum comes weeks after a Virginia judge sided with Republican state lawmakers who argued the Democrat-controlled legislature broke its own rules when seeking to amend the Virginia Constitution to allow for redrawing the map, a process that began last fall. Democratic legislators approved a redistricting-related constitutional amendment in October at the end of an unrelated special session, and then did so again in January during a new session. Virginia law requires a constitutional amendment to be adopted during consecutive sessions of the legislature. The amendment would override Virginia’s redistricting commission through the 2030 census, when nationwide redistricting would occur again ahead of the 2032 elections. The new map has already led to a reshuffling of candidate plans over which district to run for this year. Republican incumbents who would have much tougher seats to defend under the proposal have condemned the new lines, saying they don’t reflect Virginia’s status as a politically competitive state. Mid-decade redistricting has reshaped the fight for the House this year as Republicans defend their slim majority. Virginia is following the playbook used by Democrats in California, where voters last fall approved a new House map that gives the party up to five pickup opportunities. At President Donald Trump’s urging, Republicans kicked off the redistricting push last year with the adoption of a new map in Texas that could help them flip up to five Democrat-held seats. Missouri and North Carolina followed with more favorable maps for the GOP. And Florida state legislators are poised to meet for a special session this spring with Republicans eyeing gains of up to five House seats. Legal challenges have also led to a new map set to be used for this year’s elections in Utah, while Ohio was constitutionally required to redraw its congressional lines this cycle.
