In a move that’s set off a fresh wave of political debate, Virginia’s Democratic-led General Assembly has approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state legislature to redraw congressional districts mid-decade—potentially reshaping the political landscape ahead of the pivotal 2026 midterm elections. The amendment, which passed the Senate on October 31, 2025, by a 21-16 party-line vote after clearing the House of Delegates earlier in the week, would temporarily bypass the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission, giving lawmakers direct authority over the map-drawing process under specific conditions.
The measure, known as House Joint Resolution 6007, isn’t law yet. For the redrawn maps to be used in the next midterms, the amendment must pass the General Assembly again in 2026 and then be approved by Virginia voters in a statewide referendum. The amendment’s scope is tightly defined: it would only allow the legislature to act if another state redraws its congressional districts for reasons unrelated to the census or court orders between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030.
This development places Virginia at the center of a national struggle over redistricting—a battle that’s been heating up as states like Ohio, Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, all led by Republicans, have recently revised their congressional maps. According to Associated Press, these moves are widely seen as efforts to secure partisan advantage in the U.S. House, where Democrats need to gain just three seats in 2026 to flip control and block key elements of the Trump-Vance administration’s agenda.
Democrats in Virginia argue the amendment is a necessary response to what they describe as a coordinated campaign to weaken democratic institutions across the country. “We do see evidence that the system is being rigged by a wannabe dictator out of Washington,” said Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, who chairs the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, as quoted by Virginia Mercury. Rouse linked the amendment to broader trends, citing recent purges of voting rolls, efforts to restrict ballot access, and attempts to limit early voting—all of which he attributed to former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, echoed those concerns, warning that other states are using mid-cycle redistricting to entrench one party’s power for a decade or more, even when that party doesn’t win the most votes. “That’s not democracy. It’s not what we signed up for, and it’s not sustainable,” Surovell said. He added, “In an ideal world, Congress would ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide, but until then, we can’t allow a certain partisan tyrannical majority to continue to gerrymander itself in a permanent power while we sit around and say our commitment to principle.”
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, argued that the amendment was a proportional response to “opportunistic, mid-decade redistricting” now being encouraged by the Trump-Vance administration. “We’ve never had a president threaten and strong-arm state governors and legislators for changes to their state’s maps, for partisan games,” VanValkenburg said. “Yet that is exactly what we are seeing now.” He added his confidence that, if put to a vote, Virginians would approve the amendment: “I feel pretty confident that if this thing does go to them, they’re going to pass it. And Donald Trump will have to face the music in 2026.”
But Republicans are crying foul, calling the amendment a blatant power grab that undermines the will of Virginia voters and the very reforms they approved five years ago. Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, described the amendment as “a violation of the public’s trust,” pointing out that it was introduced just days before the November 5, 2025, election, after more than a million Virginians had already cast ballots. “They said very clearly that politicians should not be drawing the maps,” Sturtevant argued, referencing the 2020 referendum that created the independent redistricting commission. “Yet this amendment would strip that commission of its authority and give that power back to the very politicians that the voters removed from the process.”
Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, went further, claiming the amendment violated the constitutional requirement that an intervening election occur before lawmakers can approve a constitutional change for the second time. “That is being violated by virtue of the fact that this election is already underway,” he said, calling the move “a deliberate and clear effort to disenfranchise those million Virginia voters.”
Sen. Danny Diggs, R-York, warned that the proposal would shift the state away from fair representation and toward a national partisan strategy. “It takes the authority to redraw congressional districts away from the independent redistricting commission that the citizens voted to create in 2020,” Diggs said, “and gives it instead to the General Assembly … to use congressional redistricting as a means of manipulating power in Washington.” Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, accused Democrats of trying to engineer a 10-1 congressional split in their favor, stating, “This is not about options; this is very direct. We don’t care about fair districts; we care about making sure that there will be 10 Democratic congressional seats from Virginia next November. That’s what this vote is.”
Governor Glenn Youngkin didn’t mince words either. In a statement released on October 31, 2025, Youngkin called the process “shameful, fundamentally wrong, and illegal,” claiming Democrats had forced the amendment through “in a party-line vote, in an eleventh-hour special session at the tail end of the election.” He also alleged that lawmakers “silenced debate, threatened members with removal, and shot down resolutions against political violence.”
Democrats, for their part, insist the public will have the final say. Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, emphasized that even if the amendment passes the legislature again in 2026, it must still be ratified by voters in a statewide referendum. “The same citizens who voted two to one against partisan gerrymandering will still have the final say,” Locke said. “We’re giving them an option.”
Earlier in the day, the Senate rejected a Republican amendment that would have kept the power to redraw maps with the independent commission, not the General Assembly. Surovell argued that the commission was never truly independent, noting it was made up of “half legislators, and half people that are picked by legislators”—a structure, he said, that led to gridlock and forced the state Supreme Court to draw the current maps.
The stakes are high: Virginia currently sends six Democrats and five Republicans to the U.S. House. Political strategists suggest any new map could shift the balance, potentially giving Democrats an edge in the national fight for control of Congress. But critics warn that the amendment could damage public faith in the fairness of the electoral system—especially as national attention focuses on Virginia’s response to redistricting moves in other states.
As both parties dig in, one thing is clear: the battle over who draws the lines is far from over in Virginia. The ultimate decision will rest with voters, who will soon be asked whether to let their elected officials redraw the map—or keep that power with the commission they created just five years ago.
