Virginia’s Top Court Blocks Democrats’ New Congressional Map

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Virginia's top court blocks the Democrats new congressional map.

[00:00:04]It seems like states all over the place are moving around their maps to various benefit, one party or another. And that includes.

[00:00:12]But I wonder if it all cancels each other out in the end?

[00:00:14]I don't know. I don't know.

[00:00:15]I mean, it's gerrymandering, I guess is kind of the one of the terms for Greg Gerow. Uh, Bloomberg.

[00:00:19]Elections reporter. Blum.

[00:00:21]Uh, Greg, can you tell us what happens, uh, in Virginia?

[00:00:25]Yeah. So the Virginia Supreme Court and a 4 to 3 decision, uh, invalidated a, uh, aggressive Democratic, uh, gerrymander of the state's congressional map. The Democratic legislature had, uh, enacted new lines that would have favored their party in ten of 11 districts, which would have been a net gain of four seats and help them win control of the, uh, win control of the House in November elections.

[00:00:49]So this is a this is a setback to the Democratic campaign to do just that in an ongoing and intensifying mid-decade redistricting war against the Republicans. So for Democrats who are pushing for redrawing, um, the districts, is that it?

[00:01:05]There's no appeal. There's no second effort or third effort. Uh, for state law, the Virginia Supreme Court would be the last, uh, the last court, uh, to go to if there is a, maybe a matter of federal law involved, I suppose they could, you know, try out the U.S. Supreme Court.

[00:01:20]Um, they intervened in a New York or just in case, uh, just a month or two ago, involving Nicole, my tax district in Staten Island and Brooklyn.

[00:01:29]So we'll see if the Democrats find any recourse in the US Supreme Court.

[00:01:33]But this is, uh, this is, uh, Virginia Supreme Court is the, uh, should be the final arbiter for a state constitutional questions.

[00:01:40]Greg, can you just give us a little history lesson here on gerrymandering?

[00:01:44]When does it occur? How often does it occur?

[00:01:47]It just seems like the activity and the discussion around this remapping is more right around now than I can ever remember.

[00:01:54]Oh, yes. Um, usually the process of redrawing congressional district lines takes place once per decade after the decennial census, usually in years like ending in 1 or 2 before the first elections of a of a decade. Um, what triggered this ongoing mid-decade registering war started in Texas last summer, when the Republican government there, at the urging of President Trump, decided to enact new GOP favoring lines in an effort to help defend their very shaky House majority.

[00:02:25]Some other Republican governments followed suit in North Carolina and Missouri. Democrats counterattacked, notably in California, but also in Virginia, where, as I noted, the Democrats had hoped for a four seat gain in Virginia that has now been effectively wiped out.

[00:02:41]Um, as far as some other states or, uh, some other Republican states are trying to redraw lines in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week that curtails the use of race in redistricting.

[00:02:51]Uh, the big question will be how much will it really all matter in the midterm elections? Um, commit to reducing wars may turn out to be somewhat of a partisan wash. At the end of the day.

[00:03:01]Are there any other redistricting efforts that are pending right now that could affect the midterms? Yes.

[00:03:08]Tennessee's Republican government just enacted very swiftly a new map that would that dismantles the state's, uh, only Democratic district, um, a compact, uh, black majority district in the Memphis area.

[00:03:21]Um, South Carolina Republicans are looking at redrawing lines.

[00:03:24]Um, Louisiana, that was the state, uh, that was at the center of the U.S.

[00:03:29]Supreme Court decision last week. And Louisiana Republicans are looking at, uh, eliminating one, at least one of the Democratic districts there.

[00:03:35]So, uh, a few more states may try to, um, shoehorn in new lines, uh, before the November elections. A lot of state, uh, candidate filing deadlines have passed. So it might be hard some some of the new maps are going to face court challenges to the, uh, Tennessee map already has a challenge filed in the last 24 hours by the NAACP.

[00:03:55]So, uh, the courts will be the final arbiters in some of these cases, but we still may have a couple of states left to to try and get new maps in before, uh, before the November elections. Yeah, because I guess that's, I guess, the most pressing, uh, thing for politicians around the country is will these things impact the midterm elections?

[00:04:11]And in some places it might. Is that is that what we should?

[00:04:15]Is that how we should think about it? Yeah.

[00:04:18]Yeah. I think, um, you know, you still in some of the districts that were redrawn, some of them are still very competitive in Texas. Republicans anticipated gaining five seats under the new map. Uh, I think today with a political environment that is, you know, trending against them, uh, midterm political environment that is, um, Republicans are not guaranteed of picking up five seats.

[00:04:38]They may get they may get three at the end of the day.

[00:04:41]And you still have to field the candidates and run the elections and carry a quality and campaigns matter, the political environment matters.

[00:04:48]And that, um, you know, that that may, uh, restrict kind of the anticipated gains to redistricting. Um, but still, uh, every with the House majority beating is as being as slim as it is.

[00:04:59]Every seat matters, every district matters, and any state that redraws maps could have a disproportionate effect on the House elections, given how tight the majority is. Greg, what other surprises are you looking ahead to potentially, uh, before the midterm elections as you kind of just scan over the national map here? Well, um, any, any court decisions that may be forthcoming that might, uh, block any additional litigation.

[00:05:28]I'm looking at, uh, say Florida, for example.

[00:05:31]Uh, the Republicans, uh, led by Ron DeSantis, just implemented a new map there that could deliver up to four additional seats for the party in that state. That could go a long way toward helping, uh, House Republicans try to defy history and keep their House majority.

[00:05:46]Democrats are filing suit against that map, um, and, uh, under the grounds that the state constitution, uh, bars aggressive partisan gerrymandering.