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“The Governor does not draw the maps. The very conservative House of Delegates does that.”

That’s the most ill-informed statement in this entire thread. While no governor draws district lines—or drafts any type of legislation—the governor has something called a veto power, and if a RAT Governor of VA vetoes the redistricting plan approved by the very conservative Virginia House of Delegates and the only slightly Republican Virginia Senate, then the plan won’t go into effect because the GOP won’t come close to overturning the veto in the state Senate. And if no compromise can be reached, some random judge will draw the district lines. And you do know what happens when judges draw district lines, right? I’ll tell you what won’t happen: You won’t get 2/3 of the state legislative districts with GOP majorities (in fact, you’ll likely get Democrats in 55% of the seats), or an 8R, 4D U.S. House delegation starting in 2023 (VA will pick up a congresional seat after the 2020 Census). And those new district lines will stay in place until after the 2030 Census, when the Democrat majorities in both houses will get to draw the new district lines, and we won’t be able to stop them unless VA elects a GOP governor in 2019.

If you need to be reminded of the VA governor’s veto power in redistricting plans, think back to the map redrawing following the 2010 Census. The GOP had a comfortable majority in the House of Delegates but the Democrats had a slim majority in the Senate. As per tradition, each state house drew its own lines and approved the plan set forth by the other house; not surprisingly, the GOP House of Delegates drew a map that would result in a GOP house supermajority, while the Democrat Senate drew a map that would have created a comfortable RAT senate majority; the two houses were unable to agree on congressional redistricting. Fortunately, VA had elected Republican Bob McDonnell as governor in 2009, and the Governor vetoed the state Senate map but signed the House of Delegates map. The RAT Senate screamed bloody murder, but couldn’t do squat about it; with the 2021 state legislative elections approaching, it was forced to adopt a map that, at best, would give the Democrats a slight advantage in the state senate, and McDonnell signed it into law rather than roll the dice with a judge-drawn map. The GOP was able to win exactly half of the state Senate districts in 2021, and with RINO Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling breaking the tie, approved a congressional district map for 2012 that gave the GOP an 8-3 advantage (which lasted until some stupid judge ruled that the black-majority VA-03 had *too many* blacks, and drew two 40%-black, 55%-60% Democrat districts in SE VA, so the current delegation is 7R, 4D).

So it actually is CRUCIAL for the future of the Commonwealth of Virginia that a Republican is elected governor this November. Allowing the Democrat to win the VA governorship would imperil the GOP majorities in both houses of the state legislature and in the state’s congressional delegation (which in turn could affect control of the U.S. House), which would give the Democrats free reign to pass their liberal agenda. If you want to keep the “very conservative House of Delegates” in VA, you’d better make sure that Ralph Northam doesn’t get elected governor. And the only way to stop Northam from winning is to elect Gillespie.