{"id":342482,"date":"2026-03-04T20:29:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T01:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/virginia-court-allows-a-referendum-on-democrat-led-redistricting-that-could-flip-4-us-house-seats"},"modified":"2026-03-04T20:29:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T01:29:59","slug":"virginia-court-allows-a-referendum-on-democrat-led-redistricting-that-could-flip-4-us-house-seats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/virginia-court-allows-a-referendum-on-democrat-led-redistricting-that-could-flip-4-us-house-seats","title":{"rendered":"Virginia courtroom permits a referendum on Democrat-led redistricting that might flip 4 US Home seats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB \">RICHMOND, Va. &#8212; <\/span>For the second time, Virginia\u2019s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that voters can cast ballots on a Democrat-led congressional redistricting plan that could help the party win four more U.S. House seats, as the justices review legal challenges to the effort.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The court ruled that a statewide referendum can be held on April 21 on whether to authorize mid-decade redistricting, upending a temporary restraining order put in place by a Tazewell County judge last month. It comes after the top court made a similar ruling last month in a related case. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The court still has not ruled on whether the mid-decade redistricting amendment and referendum are legal, indicating that the scheduled April vote could be all for nothing if the top court upholds <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/virginia-judge-rules-redistricting-plans-illegal-aa92e2eceeef476b4045b31c2c5affdc\">a lower court ruling<\/a> blocking the effort. Early voting on the referendum is supposed to begin Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Since late February, officials in Tazewell County have refrained from preparing for the referendum in light of the restraining order. On Wednesday, Tazewell Director of Elections Brian Earls said he would work hard to ensure early voting would start in his county come Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cI believe we will be ready,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cIf not, it will not be for lack of effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">President Donald Trump launched an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle last year by pushing Republican officials in <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-congress-house-republicans-texas-redistricting-d18e8280a32872d9eefcbb26f66a0331\">Texas to redraw<\/a> districts to help his party win more seats. The goal was for the GOP to hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party out of power <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/election-2026-trump-voting-doj-interference-22e2313f98e354fa31f277d3a1dc67d3\">in midterms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Instead, it created a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/redistricting-congress-house-trump-gerrymander-2e5948055064f6e335170977bc4247f0\">burst of redistricting efforts<\/a> nationwide. So far, Republicans believe they can win nine more House seats in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they can win six more seats in California and Utah, and are hoping to fully or partially make up the remaining three-seat margin in Virginia. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In February, Virginia Democrats released a new congressional map that aims to give their party four more seats. Since then, the Democratic-led Legislature passed the proposed map and Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed the document into law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Still, the map only goes into effect if it\u2019s backed by voters and the amendment process is approved by the top court.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Virginia Democratic House Speaker Don Scott said Wednesday that the top court&#8217;s decision gives voters an opportunity to decide whether the map gets used.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThe Supreme Court of Virginia\u2019s decision ensures that this referendum will move forward and that Virginians will have the opportunity to make their voices heard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Democratic lawmakers in Virginia have sought to portray their redistricting push as a response to Trump\u2019s overreach. Republicans have sounded aghast at the proposed district map, describing it as a way for liberals in northern Virginia to commandeer the rest of the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">While the court allowed the referendum to move forward, their ruling did not comment on the amendment&#8217;s legality. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">\u201cIt is the process, not the outcome, of this effort that we may ultimately have to address,\u201d the ruling said. \u201cIssuing an injunction to keep Virginians from the polls is not the proper way to make this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/virginia-court-allows-referendum-democrat-led-redistricting-flip-130770407\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RICHMOND, Va. &#8212; For the second time, Virginia\u2019s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that voters can cast ballots on a Democrat-led congressional redistricting plan that could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":342485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20202,2697,6400,9149,1108,609,1425,9637,20201,102,641],"class_list":["post-342482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-director-of-elections","tag-governor","tag-missouri","tag-northern-virginia","tag-ohio","tag-president","tag-republican-party","tag-richmond","tag-tazewell-county","tag-texas","tag-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342484,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342482\/revisions\/342484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}