Virginia Democrats Unveil Proposed Constitutional Amendment Allowing Them To Temporarily Redraw Congressional Maps

Virginia Democrats, who are moving to redraw their state’s congressional map in response to Republican states doing the same, have unveiled their proposed constitutional amendment which would allow their redistricting effort to go forward. If Democrats can pull this off, they will likely net their party two or three seats in the U.S. House ahead of next year’s midterms. The push to redraw maps in Virginia kicked off on Monday, after house of delegates speaker Don Scott brought his chamber back to Richmond for a special session. He and other Democrats announced their intention to consider a redistricting proposal after GOP-led states like Texas and Missouri redrew their maps to eliminate Democratic seats. On Tuesday, lawmakers unveiled their proposed constitutional amendment, which the state legislature will consider over the course of the coming days. If adopted, it would allow Democrats to redraw congressional maps early next year, though it would first have to be approved by both the next session of the legislature — which begins in January — as well as the voters of Virginia in a statewide referendum next spring. The proposed amendment says that the Virginia legislature may only redraw congressional maps mid-decade — meaning outside of the constitutionally required redistricting that comes every ten years — if another U.S. state does the same. “The General Assembly shall be authorized to modify one or more congressional districts at any point … in the event that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state’s congressional districts at any point following that state’s adoption of a decennial reapportionment law,” the constitutional amendment says. This would apply to the 2026 midterms because of the redistricting processes other states started earlier this summer. The only exception which would not permit the Virginia legislature to not redraw district maps would be if a court in a different state ordered that state to do so. In recent years, both Utah and North Carolina have been ordered by courts to redraw legislative maps, meaning that had this Virginia amendment been in place at the time, the ability to redistrict in the commonwealth would not be triggered for state lawmakers. The other important provision is that the amendment would only apply for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 congressional elections, meaning that the state’s independent redistricting commission to retake control of the map-drawing process after this decade’s census is completed. California Democrats are currently going through the process of doing the same, though, like in Virginia, their push to gerrymander their state will have to be approved by voters in a statewide ballot initiative. If both the legislature and voters in a statewide referendum approve the amendment, Democrats will likely draw two or three new Democratic seats in the state. The sitting lawmakers most likely to be targeted include Congressman John McGuire of southern Virginia, Congresswoman Jen Kiggans of southeastern Virginia, and Congressman Rob Wittman, who represents the suburbs and exurbs around Richmond and along the Chesapeake Bay. The Republican attorney general of the state, Jason Miyares, who is locked in a tight re-election campaign, is giving the GOP an opening to potentially challenge the gerrymandering effort if it is enacted next year. In an advisory opinion issued for the legislature on Tuesday, Mr. Miyares says that one requirement to amend the state constitution — the necessity that two separate legislative sessions pass the amendment — cannot be met this year. Mr. Miyares says that because the general election for the house of delegates is already underway and the legislature is only now in a special session means that anything they pass now will actually apply to the next legislative session beginning in January — after a new crop of lawmakers is sworn in. If Mr. Miyares’s assessment is correct and upheld in court, then Democrats would have to pass their amendment next year and then again in 2028 at the earliest, meaning that redrawing the state’s congressional maps would not be permitted before the 2026 midterms. “Allowing an amendment to be proposed and approved while a general election is underway undermines the voice of Virginia voters and violates foundational principles of Virginiaconstitutional law,” Mr. Miyares said in a statement Tuesday.

Virginia Democrats Unveil Proposed Constitutional Amendment Allowing Them To Temporarily Redraw Congressional Maps

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