Virginia Republicans are already looking for ways to block, or at least slow down, Democrats' plan to redraw the Commonwealth' s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Virginia amended its constitution to have a bipartisan redistricting committee draw the state’s maps starting this decade. Democrats have pointed to GOP-led redistricting efforts in other states as grounds for redistricting the Commonwealth now.
But to do so they'll have to amend the constitution again, and that means they’ll need a legislative election between two affirmative votes on the amendment’s language in each legislative chamber.
House Republican leader Terry Kilgore, a Southwest Virginia civil litigator by trade, thinks Democrats in the majority made a mistake in trying to hold a redistricting vote so close to Election Day.
“I’m just one lawyer, but in my legal opinion, the elections’ already started and it's too late constitutionally to have such a vote,” Kilgore said Thursday.
Southside Republican Senator and constitutional lawyer Bill Stanley thinks Kilgore may be right about ongoing election concerns, especially considering the over 800,000 early votes already cast.
“I would think some of those voters who may have already voted may want to change their vote and they can’t now because of what they’re seeing the Democratic Party of Virginia doing,” Stanley told Radio IQ.
But Stanley’s law partner, former Democratic Virginia Attorney General Tony Troy, said the constitutional amendment process specifies only different legislatures divided by a statewide election.
“So, I don’t think the ongoing votes are relevant to the issue,” Troy said Friday morning.
Kilgore said Thursday he'd like to have Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican seeking reelection this fall, weigh in on the issue; a request for comment sent to his office was not returned.
For their part, Virginia Democrats are staying mum, with no language for the amendment released to the public yet, let alone confirmation Monday's special session is specifically for redistricting.
But one lawmaker familiar with the process said they’ve spent months working on the yet-to-be-revealed amendment’s language and any Republican efforts to use the courts to slow it down are a “desperate Hail Mary… to deflect from their undemocratic efforts to prevent accountability nationwide for their policies.”
As for Kilgore’s ongoing election argument? “The code is clear that elections happen on Election Day,” the source said.
It's also still unclear who could file suit against the amendment. Even Stanley admitted little could be done until the second vote on the measure was cast in 2026. And while a recent effort by a GOP congressman in California aimed to slow down the redistricting effort in the Golden State, a federal judge dismissed the case Thursday for lack of standing.
Stanley said he was more than willing to file claims against the redistricting effort when the time came, but he signaled the effort would likely at least start in state, not federal court.
"They weren't undoing what was in the constitution in order to get their way politically," he said of what differentiates Virginia's redistricting fight. "That is a bigger fight and has much larger, constitutional implications than the court case did in California."
If Republicans retake the House of Delegates, that could also halt the process.
Notably any bogging down of the process could stymie the effort in the end. Even if Democrats pass the amendment next week, and again in January at the start of the 2026 session, they'd have to hold a special election on the ballot referendum. That could happen 90 days after the vote, and there's other amendment referendums - felon voting rights, same-sex marriage and abortion - that could be placed on the ballot as well.
But funding for that election would likely require support from Virginia's next governor.
Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears has called the redistricting scheme a "desperate political stunt." Democrat Abigail Spanberger has yet to comment on the effort.
There are also questions about whether the next governor would have to approve the new maps as well.
And finally, even if approved, the map drawing process takes time. Congressional primaries would likely have to be pushed to August, in line with what's happened in previous redistricting years, in order to meet federal election deadlines.
Legislators return to Richmond Monday to start the process. While a timeline for passage is still unclear, the longer delegates are in Richmond the less time they can spend on the campaign trail with just over a week until Election Day.
And whether Virginia voters would support the effort also remains to be seen, though anti-Trump sentiment was among top voter priorities in recent polling.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
