Free Republic

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down the state’s recently passed redistricting referendum, dealing a massive blow to Democrats who hoped to gain several seats from new House maps. The redistricting ballot measure passed by three percentage points in late April in what was seen at the time as a major win for Democrats, who stood to gain as many as four seats from redrawn maps ahead of the November midterms. The Virginia Supreme Court decision comes amid an ongoing partisan gerrymandering war and as Republican-led states across the South are working to redraw their House districts after a...

RICHMOND, VA — In the wake of the Virginia Supreme Court striking down the commonwealth's redrawn voting map, Democrats proposed a new measure that just makes it illegal for Republicans to vote. In lieu of further political maneuvers to suppress Republicans from having Congressional representation, the Democratic Party said it had decided to address the root cause of the problem. "This is way easier," said Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger. "We're tackling the real issue, which is Republicans being allowed to vote at all. There will be no more campaigning, no more counting ballots. That stuff is such a hassle anyway."...

A top Virginia Democrat's office is being raided by the FBI on Wednesday morning. The federal agency raided the office of Virginia Senate President Pro Tempore L Louise Lucas in Portsmouth, Virginia on Wednesday per Fox News. Fox also reported that this action was in relation to a 'major corruption probe,' adding that the 'FBI is serving multiple search warrants, approved by a federal judge, at her office and a next-door cannabis dispensary.' Lucas was captured arriving on the scene as the FBI searched her office, per a live broadcast from the event. Lucas told reporters on the scene that...

This week in a 6-3 ruling, the US Supreme Court struck down a race-based Congressional district map in Louisiana. Former Vice-President Kamala Harris sharply criticized the Court "for gutting the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The Louisiana gerrymander was crucial for ensuring the election of Black Democrats in at least two of the state's Congressional Districts." Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, called the current Louisiana Congressional District map "an unconstitutional gerrymander. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was designed to enforce the Constitution — not collide with it. Unfortunately, lower courts have sometimes applied this Court's...

Virginians for Fair Elections, a main group fighting to get Virginia voters to approve a ballot referendum that will allow the state to redraw its congressional maps, has been pumped with millions in cash from a web of George Soros-backed dark money groups and top Democratic Party officials. The money the group has garnered ahead of Tuesday’s vote, which is poised to allow Democrats in the House of Representatives to potentially take four seats from Republicans going into the midterms, also comes from leading Democratic Party figures and organizations like Nancy Pelosi and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Other...

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...

The radical left’s war on the American Republic just took a terrifying leap forward in the Commonwealth of Virginia. On Tuesday, far-left Governor Abigail Spanberger officially signed legislation that would enter Virginia into the controversial National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This dangerous move effectively strikes a match to the U.S. Constitution. Virginia becomes the 19th jurisdiction to join the compact, bringing the total to 222 electoral votes, just 48 shy of the 270 needed to activate the plan. According to the League of Women Voters, “Six additional states with 65 electoral votes (Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and...

Republican strategist Karl Rove said Thursday that Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) is going through a “bad start” as she experiences some rocky polling. “Well, it’s a bad start, remember, she won 58-42 last November,” Rove said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.” “She said in that tape that you had that it was a 17-point swing, it’s actually a 9-point swing. The last Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, had 49 percent four years earlier,” Rove said, referencing the Virginia governor from 2014-18. “The poll shows her 46 approve, 47 disapprove, and that’s, you know, 12 points less than what she got on...

Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger claimed she helped bring thousands of jobs to her state — even though the companies she listed all invested in Virginia when her Republican predecessor was still in office. The governor took a victory lap Monday for a package of four bipartisan bills she signed that day, with both an X post from her government account and a news release from her office claiming the legislation brought about 3,250 new jobs and $7.1 billion in investment to her state. Reporter Nick Minock of Washington-based ABC affiliate WJLA, however, noted in a Wednesday morning X post...

Just two months into her term of office, Gov. Spanberger's approval polling is barely above water. Her win last year was supposed to be the victory of pragmatic moderation over the voices of the far left, but since then Virginia voters seem to have realized she's a left-wing partisan, not a moderate. Today the Washington Post has a story about this sudden turnaround.

RICHMOND, VA — Virginia's Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger on Tuesday ignored questions on whether she would entertain calls from the Department of Homeland Security to end sanctuary policies in the state. "Governor Spanberger must end her sanctuary policies that allow these illegal aliens onto our streets and work with DHS to protect the citizens of the commonwealth," the agency said in a post to social media. Virginia — and in particular Fairfax County — has made headlines in recent weeks for a string of deadly attacks carried out by illegal aliens. Earlier this month, authorities charged 28-year-old Guatemala native Misael...

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s approval rating stands at 47 percent two months into the Democrat’s term, with 46 percent of voters disapproving and 7 percent expressing no opinion in a Washington Post-Schar School poll. Spanberger won in a 15-point landslide last year after touting her reputation for bipartisanship built on three terms representing a conservative-leaning district in Congress. But her current ratings reflect sharp polarization among Virginia voters in their views of the state’s first female governor.

In his state of the union speech, President Trump asked members of Congress to stand to show their support for the concept that "the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens." While the Republican contingent had no qualms about acknowledging this responsibility, not a single Democrat did. In the Democratic response delivered by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va), she pointed out that "American citizens are among the wealthiest in the world. They are capable of protecting themselves. There are billions of folks in other countries who need America's help. Former President Biden invited tens of millions of...

Sorry, Gav. Sorry, Gretch. Sorry, Pete. And nothing for you, Josh Shapiro. The DNC establishment selected newly elected Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger as the face of their party to make their official response to President Trump's State of the Union speech. And all anyone could conclude from it was 'what were they thinking?' [Rebuttal video at link] With her knobby nose and missing lips, she had the unfortunate appearance of a gnome, and not a cute one. She can't help that, but Breitbart notes that her gestures were off, too, which she could have practiced a little. Abigail Spanberger's response...

Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger was widely panned by conservatives on social media over her rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union, with many calling out the governor for labeling herself as a "moderate" during the campaign but changing her tune. Spanberger’s speech contained several examples of supporting far-left causes that drew criticism online, including school walkouts over ICE, touting "affordability" despite pushing to raise taxes and slamming Trump. Her overall speech quickly drew heat from conservatives online over her policies and her tone. "This Spanberger speech can basically be summed up as ‘I AM A DEMOCRAT WHO...

Below is the full transcript of Spanberger's prepared remarks: ___ Good evening and welcome to historic Williamsburg. We are gathered here in the chambers of the House of Burgesses. In 1705, the people of the Virginia colony gathered here to take on the extraordinary task of governing themselves. Before there was a Declaration of Independence, a Constitution, or a Bill of Rights — there were people in this very room. The people who served here ultimately dreamed of what a new nation — unlike anything the world had ever seen — could be. The United States was founded on the...

Just over a month into Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s term, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors is moving its headquarters out of her state. Boeing announced Wednesday that it will relocate its Defense, Space & Security headquarters to St. Louis, where the division was based from 1997 to 2017. The company previously moved the unit to Chicago and then to Arlington in 2022 during the administration of former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The move represents a significant shift for Boeing, which employs roughly 18,000 people in the St. Louis region. Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth joined Republican...

On Wednesday, aerospace giant Boeing announced it will return its Defense, Space & Security headquarters to St. Louis following almost a decade in Virginia. The move comes only weeks after radical Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) took office. Steve Parker, Boeing Defense, Space & Security CEO, said in a statement, “It’s important for leaders to be side-by-side with our teammates, listening to their feedback and acting to remove obstacles as we continue to stabilize and strengthen our business.”

Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?

Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va) ran on a platform of making Virginia more affordable. Now she and the expanded Democrat majority in the legislature are set on imposing new taxes on dog walking and grooming, guns and ammunition, storage facilities, dry cleaning, home repairs, electric leaf blowers and electric landscaping equipment, and creating some new income tax brackets. The Governor admitted that "these new taxes seem like they will raise the cost of living for the folks that spend money on these items. However, none of the things we're putting new taxes on are necessities. No one needs to own a...