The Virginia Supreme Court gave the go-ahead on Friday for a statewide vote that could allow the Democratic state legislature to net the state four new Democratic U.S. House seats.
The ruling will allow an April 21 statewide vote on a constitutional amendment that would give the Virginia General Assembly, led by Democrats, the authority to redraw the state’s congressional map mid-decade. It deals a major win for the state’s Democratic legislators, who have been pushing to redraw the map to net four new blue U.S. House seats for the Old Dominion.
Democrats hold six of the state’s House seats, while Republicans hold five. The Democrats in the General Assembly, joining nationwide redistricting battles, have floated a map that would give Democrats nine or 10 of the state’s 11 districts.
The state Supreme Court ruling in favor of the referendum overturns a lower court’s block against the Democrats’ redistricting maneuver. That lower court ruling was preventing the referendum from being official, even though Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) signed a bill sending the constitutional amendment to voters last week.
Democrats had appealed to the Supreme Court that the Tazewell County Circuit Court ruling that Democrats in the legislature acted against proper procedure, striking down the referendum and determining that the current map must stay in place until 2028.
Despite the state Supreme Court allowing the referendum, the decision may not be final. The court may still schedule oral arguments and opening briefs in the redistricting case, with a final ruling likely to come after the April 21 referendum, according to NBC News.
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Virginia voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election by a 5.2% margin, as she garnered 51.8% of the vote compared to GOP candidate Donald Trump’s 46.6%. Her margin was much closer than that of President Joe Biden’s approximate 10-point swing in the state in 2020.
Spanberger won her 2025 gubernatorial race against then-Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by about 15.4 percentage points. The state’s former popular Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin was term-limited and could not seek reelection.