New blow for Dems as SCOTUS rejects Virginia redistricting map

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Welcome back to Live Now from Fox. I'm your host, Anna Marc. Let's get started right now with a live look over Capitol Hill. Time in the nation's capital is just after 2:15 p.m. Uh the redistricting turmoil has Democrats scrambling ahead of the midterm elections. Under current maps, Republicans are likely to gain up to 17 seats, while Democrats, they could gain up to six. Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Perram reports Democrats are pulling out all the stops to counter the redistricting strategy.

[00:00:34]>> The 2024 Democratic presidential nominee still trying to sway the party.

[00:00:39]>> Let's engage in a good old-fashioned roundt where we agree there are no bad ideas. Harris pitched eliminating the electoral college, granting DC and Puerto Rico statethood, and altering the Supreme Court so Democrats score more rulings in their favor. Top Democrats are backing up Harris.

[00:00:57]>> We need dramatic electoral reform. We need dramatic campaign finance reform.

[00:01:02]We need dramatic judicial reform.

[00:01:04]>> Some Democrats want to pack the Supreme Court.

[00:01:07]>> That's not a crazy idea that's been done throughout the history of our country.

[00:01:11]Republicans aim to boomerang these progressive ideas on Democrats in the midterms. GOP leaders are happy to highlight Harris after her 2024 stumble.

[00:01:21]>> For the former vice president of the United States and a and a candidate for president to suggest that you should pack the Supreme Court or or destroy these institutions because they lost is I I just think um outrageous. Democrats also claim that Republican redistricting efforts are about race, but what Democrats do about it isn't certain.

[00:01:41]>> Democrats are prepared to use whatever levels we can to influence the outcome of the election.

[00:01:48]>> But respectfully, this all sounds kind of vague. You guys have a five alarm fire now after those two court decisions, and I'm not hearing any specifics.

[00:01:55]>> Well, you just stay tuned.

[00:01:59]>> How does that convince the voters, though? Look, we're two weeks away from a crazy Supreme Court decision. You can't expect anyone to come with a strategy right now.

[00:02:12]>> A strategy to counter redistricting might not be clear, but nothing survives in a vacuum. That's why Republicans want to underscore hyper progressive ideas.

[00:02:23]On Capitol Hill, Chad Pergrim, Fox News.

[00:02:27]>> Thanks to Chad for that report. And of course, a development in the fight over Virginia's congressional maps. The US Supreme Court just denied a final emergency appeal from Democrats to revive an April referendum that would have redrawn district lines. With the current maps now locked in for those November midterms, the battle for control of the US House has shifted.

[00:02:50]Virginia Democrats pushed in April of 2026 a referendum for mid decade redistricting to redraw congressional maps. The Virginia Supreme Court struck that down May 8th and the US Supreme Court recently denied an emergency effort to revive that. So here to break all of this down with us is Axio reporter Sabrina Mareno. Thanks so much for being here.

[00:03:11]>> Yeah, thanks for having me.

[00:03:12]>> Of course. So Sabrina, your latest piece for Axios lays it out pretty clearly, right? The Virginia redistricting push is officially dead. for our audience just catching up. What exactly was the emergency effort for Democrats that took that they took to the Supreme Court and why was that struck down so quickly?

[00:03:28]>> So there's I mean to answer that last question, a really big part of this that Republicans are arguing is that you know like this is something that was dependent on state law. And so let's go back maybe just a couple weeks right after the uh right after Virginiaians kind of pushed through this redistricting plan said yes to it. Um the Virginia Supreme Court took it up as well and the Virginia Supreme Court sided with Republicans and said that you know what the process for Democrats to kind of push through this amendment process was unconstitutional. And so let's take it back to how Virginia law works. Uh Virginia law states that for an amendment process to start, you know, going through to get to voters, it has to pass before a house election and after a house election. And so what happened last year, right before the House election in November, um was that they put through a special session, passed that resolution so then there'd be an election, and then after the election in January when they reconvened, they could push through this amendment again and head it to voters.

[00:04:28]And that's how we got to the April 21st referendum. Um, of course, Republicans were saying that that was unconstitutional. And it all came down to um first that state constitution, how the amendment process works under Virginia law. And second, Republicans are saying that voting starts, the election is when voting starts. We have an early voting period. Democrats said that well, the election is election day.

[00:04:52]Uh the Virginia Supreme Court disagreed with that. They Democrats fought back and they were trying to say, hey, state justices misread federal election law.

[00:05:01]Um but we saw that very quick denial.

[00:05:03]And a lot of legal experts are saying, you know, it's because it's a state issue. Supreme Court usually does not intervene on state issues.

[00:05:10]So just a few weeks ago, Virginia voters actually approved the effort to redraw the congressional maps. Walk us through this legal whiplash. How did a successful voter referendum hit that brick wall at the Supreme Court right before those midterms?

[00:05:24]>> That is that's what makes all of this so wild, right? I mean, the redistricting push has been faced with a slew of legal challenges from the get-go on almost every single aspect of it. Um whether it be the ballot language, whether it be the amendment process. Um but there was this part just before the election and the Supreme Court in the Virginia Supreme Court in its opinion um said that there was a reason they did this.

[00:05:47]The Virginia Supreme Court let the vote go through. They said we're not going to intervene until people vote. Um and that is kind of what Democrats are really seizing on right now. They're saying, "Well, this the Virginia Supreme Court allowed for millions of votes to be thrown out." Um I think we're going to be hearing that a lot as we enter midterms. Um, but you know, Republicans are also fighting on that and are saying, "Well, Democrats violated the Constitution." But that's how we kind of got to where we are. And this has happened in the past under Virginia Supreme Court, but decades and decades ago, um, like 1958. And so it is a very rare occurrence for the state supreme court to do this.

[00:06:23]>> And now that the Supreme Court has issued that final blow, what's the mood among Virginia Democratic leadership who champion that effort?

[00:06:33]What we're hearing now is kind of um saying that, you know, the the Supreme Court is super partisan. This was a partisan uh decision. We also heard Democrats saying that about the 4-3 ruling for the state supreme court as well. Um the it was 43 with four justices that lean Republican. Um but what Republicans were saying is, you know, this was a state issue. It was against the Constitution. Um so that's kind of that tugof-war that we're seeing. But Democrats, there's there's kind of no way forward. There's no way forward, actually. And so the the mood is kind of bleak. It's been bleak for a couple weeks. And you know, even when the AG put forth this emergency request to the Supreme Court, uh people knew that it was a long shot. It was a Hail Mary.

[00:07:19]>> You know, on the flip side, this is a pretty big win for the current maps. How are Virginia Republicans capitalizing on the Supreme Court denial as they gear up for November? I think that's what we are going to watch, right? Like how do they pivot? Because there's also a bunch of Democrats who announced runs for districts that hadn't existed yet. And so it's and we're seeing a lot of those people back out. We just saw Dorothy McAuliff suspend her campaign. Um and and even with the existing maps, there is some sentiment that Democrats could still flip at least two seats, right? So it's not that four seat gain. Uh but even if they were to achieve that, which I think Republicans are really going to try to push back on that, uh it's not going to be enough to counter kind of that nationwide redistricting fight. Uh so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[00:08:09]>> You know, since the new maps are dead, the current boundaries are locked. And like we said, for the midterms, who are the biggest political winners and losers under the maps that we're now stuck with? Break that down for the viewers.

[00:08:19]>> The one that we're stuck with >> you.

[00:08:21]>> Okay. So, it's tough because so there's the something that's been the tension and this is what uh Democrats are trying to seize on is Northern Virginia and Richmond is very heavily Democratic.

[00:08:32]Even when they put forth that redistricting commission back in 2020, um it was said that Democrats are losing voters uh because of that very high concentration of Democrats in Northern Virginia and Richmond. And so I think in the current map uh which some say is like one of the fairest maps in the country. I think Democrats have a concentration of people in very specific areas. However, I would also say that Republicans can also be losers here because there's a there's a very popular thing here where Republicans will be winning until Fairfax County comes in.

[00:09:08]It's kind of jokingly called like Fairfax Hammer, right? And we we saw it with the presidential election. We saw it with the gubernatorial election. Uh we see that like 5050 until Fairfax County comes in. And so that is where Republicans have the biggest issue and I think under the current map, Northern Virginia is still just almost impossible for Republicans to beat. Um I think they're going to be eyeing the suburbs because that's kind of where they're losing a lot of their voters. Um and so it's I think it's 50/50 just because of how the maps are set up. Democrats are losing voters because of the high concentration of where they are at, but Republicans do have a fight ahead with the suburbs that they used to have kind of a lot of control over. They're losing some heat there.

[00:09:53]>> You had reported that Virginia Democrats were even discussing maybe a court overhaul after the initial state ruling.

[00:10:00]Is that kind of retaliation actually maybe gaining traction or is the party forced to just pivot entirely to the ground game campaigning?

[00:10:10]So from what state Democrats have said, you know, that that that idea of overhauling the court was very much among congressional Democrats. I mean, state Democrats, there was no appetite for it. Um, you know, even uh Scott Serville, he was saying this is uh this is wild. That is so highly unrealistic there. So there's not an appetite for it. We're going to see them shift to the ground game. Uh and I think a lot of that the very extraordinary measures discussed, I I do not see state Democrats going for it. And even those um things that were reportedly discussed, congressional Democrats are going to need state Democrats to be on board. I I would be extremely surprised if Governor Spanberger would ever go for that. She said that she wouldn't. Uh and so have state Democrats. So I think they're going to shift to the ground game.

[00:10:57]>> Speaking of Governor Spanberger, state Democrats of course poured tens of millions of dollars into this SNAP referendum. How's the party leadership, including the governor, handling that internal frustration from members who might have warned that that legal route was a little bit risky to take?

[00:11:12]>> I think that's been the the tension for a minute, right? I mean, we have um of course, Senate Leader Luis Lucas, she was she was truly the mastermind behind this 101 map. Um and that was a point of tension early on. And we've also seen uh you know, Senator Lucas and Governor Spanberger kind of clashing on that. Uh, I think that is going to be something that'll be very interesting in campaigns that I I'll be looking out for because a lot of people are talking about how much money was spent on this and and it's kind of this clash between how much money was spent on this. Of course, it wasn't always coming from state Democrats, but it clashes with this, you know, affordability message. Um, and so I think that's how we're going to see where it'll be interesting to see how that comes out in in ahead of midterms.

[00:11:58]So behind the scenes, do you think Virginia Democrats are maybe already strategizing a new approach for future election cycles or is all that energy just now, you know, purely focusing on those grassroots campaign efforts for the existing maps?

[00:12:11]>> So I would say publicly I I think it's too too soon to tell, but publicly they're going to probably say that they're focusing on the midterms.

[00:12:19]However, I would be extremely surprised if there wasn't a push for 2028. Uh but I think a lot of the push back from uh especially from what happened this time was, you know, why didn't you just do it on time? Why didn't you just do it kind of before early voting started? And it's likely because it wouldn't have been a very popular message. Um that's what I've had some people tell me. But I think they're going to be focusing on the affordability message. I think they're going to focus on the ground game. That doesn't mean that 2028 is, you know, ruled out. Maybe they'll launch it back up again. But I think what'll be interesting to see is uh kind of what voters feel about that, right?

[00:12:55]Millions of voters came out to vote in this past election. Uh but also Virginia has an election every single year. Will voters be tired of it? I'm We don't know yet.

[00:13:05]>> One more question before I let you go.

[00:13:07]How does this Virginia ruling maybe change the broader national math for control of the US House this November?

[00:13:14]I mean, Virginia was one of the most closely watched redistricting fights, and it was because it it was one of Democrats' best chances. I think that's why we've seen congressional Democrats um fight so aggressively on it. And not I mean, not just congressional Democrats, right? We also had um House Speaker Johnson uh visit Virginia multiple times to be fighting against Virginia's redistricting push. It was seen as Democrats as one of Democrats' best chances to counter those gains. And so I I think this is a massive blow because there's there's kind of no bouncing back from this. Um and I I think that's why so many eyes were on Virginia.

[00:13:49]>> All right, Sabrina, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate that and your insight here on Live Now from Fox. Thank you.