Posted on 04/20/2026 11:02:47 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Virginia Democrats hope the new congressional map they’re asking voters to approve Tuesday will flip four Republican House districts, delivering 10 of 11 seats in a state former Vice President Kamala Harris won with just 52% of the vote in 2024.
Here’s how they drew it up.
The plan dramatically reworks entire sections of the state, slicing up deep blue districts in the Washington, DC, suburbs and around Richmond, and creates a new district running along the Blue Ridge Mountains that connects liberal cities.
Virginia’s current map, which was drawn by a pair of court-appointed redistricting experts in 2021, is compact and produced six districts that lean towards Democrats, four that lean towards Republicans, and one which is highly competitive. Opponents of Tuesday’s referendum have run ads noting that Gov. Abigail Spanberger and former President Barack Obama backed nonpartisan redistricting then.
The proposed map is a jagged puzzle specifically drawn to help Democrats win as many seats as possible.
The vote is just the latest volley in a redistricting battle that kicked off last year, when Republicans redrew Texas’ map with the goal of flipping five Democratic seats. Spanberger and Obama now argue the new map is necessary to counter President Donald Trump’s push for new Republican seats.
After some internal disagreement over how aggressively to draw their new map, Democratic leaders in Virginia took a maximalist approach. The resulting map creates several seats that appear more competitive than the new Republican-leaning districts drawn in Texas.
While Texas Republicans drew a map where none of their targeted seats voted for Trump by less than 10 percentage points in 2024, five of the districts on the proposed Virginia map supported Harris by single digits.
Northern Virginia and the ‘lobster’
Heavily Democratic northern Virginia would be carved...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
CNN Propaganda.
This will cost both Texas and Virginia in wave elections. It’s not necessarily a bad thing - parties and politicians are always gonna be trying new finagles. But the fact is, these machinations narrow victory margins, make each seat less defensible.
Heaven forbid that the District Map reflects the actual constituency of the voters and its true "taxation with representation."
Spanberger and Obama now argue the new map is necessary to counter President Donald Trump’s push for new Republican seats.
So.. This is not about representative government - this is about unabashed political favoritism.
Virginia is rapidly becoming one really screwed up state!
The old days of the Byrds is a distant memory as Virginians embrace socialism.
Because Americans truly do prefer peaceful slavery over dangerous freedom.
Indiana should feel good about themselves. Spit.
It was a bad idea when Texas did it and it’s a bad idea now.
I fail to understand why they allow any GOP districts ...
At the risk of giving them ideas, how about dynamic districting? At the end of Election Day, or such time as the Democrats decide they have accumulated enough votes, the districting is determined. As long as the Democrats have at least 11 more votes than their opponents, divide the votes into 11 districts such that each district is won by the Democrat.
If this is done correctly, the Democrats and their opponents don’t even need to run candidates.
Trump started it in Texas. Let’s not forget that please.
That is what happens when LIEberal Democrats “win” elections!
Because no one has ever used redistricting?
Trump started it in Texas. Let’s not forget that please.
43 Democrats in California...already lopsided so they had the initial advantage. With the new map, they'll be up to 48.
Trump was just trying to make the playing field fair because the Republicans were doing nothing about it.
I think the most pressing and most effective thing that can be done is to reevaluate the last census and remove the non citizen numbers. I that works drop quite a few Democratic seats. Granted, I an ignorant about how difficult this process would be.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.