Governor called referendum after president urged GOP-led states to redraw maps to protect House majority
Voters in Virginia on Tuesday approved new congressional maps intended to boost Democrats’ chances of retaking the House of Representatives, in the latest blow to Donald Trump’s effort to use mid-decade redistricting to preserve his control of Congress.
The tit-for-tat redistricting battle began last year after Trump pressed Texas’s Republican-controlled legislature to redraw that state’s congressional maps in a bid to oust as many as five Democratic House lawmakers in the November midterm elections.
California voters retaliated by approving new maps that could flip five Republican-held seats, and in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, the newly elected Democratic governor, backed an effort to redraw her state’s maps following her January inauguration. Tuesday’s referendum could help Democrats win four additional House seats in November’s midterm elections.
It was too fucking close, too. I’m glad it passed.
I’m also happy that almost all of Hampton Roads was very much on the YES side. Poquoson went very NO and York went somewhat NO, but even James City County and even Charles City County went YES, although James City County was the smallest margin in the entire state.
Newport News where I live was solidly YES. I’m a mod in the subreddit - the last thing I’m doing with reddit - and we got brigaded to hell from people outside the community in three threads about the vote. It was crazy.