The Redistricting Vote: Virginia Is Where Trump’s Scheme Came to Die

The commonwealth’s voters just gave Democrats four more House seats—and dealt the Orange One a humiliating defeat in a fight he started.

Yes, Virginia! The passage of a ballot initiative that allows Virginia Democrats to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts will make it easier for Democrats to win the House and put another check on our autocratic president. But just as importantly, the aggressive, collective gerrymandering pushes by Democrats in California and now Virginia show a party that finally fully understands that it will have to fight hard and a little dirty to defeat the GOP and defend American democracy.

The ballot initiative, which passed by about two percentage points, formally allows the Virginia General Assembly to redraw the state’s 11 congressional districts, supplanting the bipartisan Virginia Restricting Commission. Redistricting by the legislature is triggered by another state changing its congressional districts outside of the traditional every-10-years process without a judicial order. The measure is temporary, with redistricting power going back to the commission in 2031.

Informally, the Virginia Democrats who control the state’s legislature have given themselves power to gerrymander the state’s districts as a short-term response to Republicans gerrymandering Texas and other states they control at the behest of President Trump.

The legislature has already created and adopted the new district maps. They go into effect with the passage of this amendment. But the Virginia Supreme Court could still decide that the process by which the amendment was passed or the gerrymandering itself violates the state’s........

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