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Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing a one-time round of mid-decade redistricting after late results from Fairfax County and other heavily Democratic Northern Virginia communities erased an early lead for opponents.
The Associated Press called the April 21 special election at 8:49 p.m.
With 60% of precincts reporting, the statewide margin was about 3 percentage points among more than 2.8 million votes. Fairfax voters backed the amendment by a much wider margin, with 70.9% voting yes and 29% voting no.
Fairfax County reported 41.1% turnout among its 813,763 registered voters in a final update before polls closed at 7 p.m.
The amendment permits Virginia’s Democratic-led General Assembly to use newly drawn congressional districts without going through the bipartisan redistricting commission. However, a pending case before the Virginia Supreme Court could still invalidate the effort and make the referendum result moot.
Virginia joins a national redistricting fight
The vote was a setback for President Donald Trump, who encouraged Republican officials in Texas last year to redraw congressional boundaries to help the party protect its narrow U.S. House majority in November’s midterm elections.
That move sparked redistricting efforts around the country. Republicans believe revised maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio could produce as many as nine additional House seats. Democrats anticipate gaining up to five seats from California’s voter-approved mid-decade redistricting plan and another from court-ordered districts in Utah.
Virginia Democrats hope their new map will help close the remaining gap. The party flipped 13 seats in the Virginia House and regained the governor’s office last year.
The redistricting contest is also continuing in Florida, where the Republican-led Legislature is scheduled to begin a special session April 28 that could produce more favorable congressional districts for the GOP.
Democrats currently control six of Virginia’s 11 U.S. House seats. The existing boundaries were imposed by the Virginia Supreme Court in 2021 after the bipartisan commission failed to agree on maps based on the latest census.
Under the proposed map, Democrats could win as many as 10 seats. Five districts would be anchored in heavily Democratic Northern Virginia, including one unusually shaped district extending into Republican-leaning rural areas.
Changes to four districts around Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads would weaken conservative voting blocs. A redesigned western Virginia district would combine three Democratic-leaning college towns to counterbalance Republican voters elsewhere.
The plan would also divide Fairfax County among five congressional districts.
Legal challenge could nullify the vote
Democrats described the amendment as a response to Republican redistricting elsewhere. During an online rally, Gov. Abigail Spanberger said the effort was “pushing back against what other states have done in trying to stack the deck for Donald Trump in those congressional elections.”
Former President Barack Obama appeared in advertising supporting the amendment. Opponents countered with campaign materials highlighting earlier statements in which Obama and Spanberger criticized gerrymandering.
Congressional maps are ordinarily redrawn once every decade following the census. Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2020 that shifted redistricting authority away from lawmakers and toward a bipartisan commission.
The General Assembly endorsed the new amendment last fall and passed it again in January. That two-step process, separated by an election, was intended to qualify the measure for the ballot. The amendment allows lawmakers to redraw districts before responsibility returns to the bipartisan commission after the 2030 census.
Lawmakers approved a new congressional map in February, contingent on voter approval of the amendment.
Republicans filed several lawsuits challenging the process. Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that lawmakers improperly added the amendment to a special session, failed to complete the first legislative vote before voting began in last year’s general election and did not publish the proposed amendment at least three months before that election.
The Virginia Supreme Court is reviewing the case. If it upholds Hurley’s ruling, the newly approved amendment and the congressional map tied to it could be invalidated.