Virginia Democrats weigh drastic moves after court strikes voting map

Virginia Democrats left themselves with fewer legal levers and higher stakes after the state’s highest court voided their new congressional map, then spent Saturday privately weighing whether any drastic maneuver could still salvage seats before the 2026 midterms.

In a call that included Hakeem Jeffries, Virginia House Democrats and members of the state’s congressional delegation, lawmakers vented anger over the Supreme Court of Virginia’s 4-3 ruling and talked through a goal that now looks far harder to reach: flipping two or three Republican-held districts even under the existing map. They also discussed a more aggressive, bank-shot idea to redraw the lines anyway, including one unusual proposal to replace the entire state Supreme Court, a step participants viewed as far-fetched and potentially unacceptable to Gov. Abigail Spanberger and legislative leaders.

The court’s decision on May 8 undercut a map Democrats had portrayed as a breakthrough. Voters had approved the mid-decade redistricting amendment on April 21 by 51.7% to 48.3%, and the plan was expected to give Democrats as many as four additional U.S. House seats. That would have turned Virginia’s current 6-5 Democratic edge into a projected 10-1 advantage. Instead, the court held that the legislature violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution in advancing the amendment and said that violation nullified the referendum’s legal effect. The justices also said the process denied more than 1.3 million Virginians an opportunity to weigh the amendment when choosing their representatives.

The practical clock is now ticking. In a court filing last month, Steven Koski, the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, said any map changes after Tuesday, May 12, would significantly raise the risk that the agency could not properly prepare for the state’s Aug. 4 primary. That leaves Democrats with only days to find a lawful path, if one exists, to alter the 2021-era districts that will otherwise remain in place for the 2026 election cycle.

The setback matters far beyond Richmond. Virginia Democrats had pitched the referendum as a way to offset Republican gains elsewhere after Donald Trump urged GOP-controlled states to redraw maps, and the fight had become part of a broader national scramble over House control. At the time of the ruling, Republicans believed they could net as many as nine seats from new maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, while Democrats saw room for gains in California and under court-imposed districts in Utah. The Virginia ruling, by restoring the old map, exposed how narrow the party’s options remain when courts decide the rules of redistricting.