FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is calling Democrats’ mid-decade redistricting push “a shocking power grab” that overrides the will of voters. The move from Democrats has already pulled state Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears off the campaign trail less than a week before Election Day.
Miyares, who is seeking a second term this fall, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that the timing of the special session is the problem because many voters have already cast their ballots.
“The way the law is written, any constitutional amendment must pass the General Assembly, then go through an intervening election so voters know what’s at stake,” Miyares said. “Close to a million Virginians have already voted. We no longer have Election Day, we have election season.”
Under Virginia’s constitution, a proposed amendment must pass the General Assembly twice, with a state election held between those votes. The idea is that voters go to the polls knowing their representatives have backed a constitutional change, and can decide whether to send those same lawmakers back to Richmond to approve it again. Only after that second vote can the proposal appear on the ballot for a statewide referendum.
“I think it is a pretty shocking power grab,” Miyares said. “I’ve already issued an opinion that I don’t think this meets the definition of an intervening election, because so many Virginians have already voted.”
Democrats are racing against the clock. They’re trying to push the first vote through before Tuesday’s election, then hold a second vote in the next legislative session. If they succeed, voters could decide next year whether to amend the state constitution to permit mid-decade redistricting.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger said she would not stand in the way of the General Assembly’s move, calling it a matter for legislative leaders to decide.
“What they are doing at this moment is keeping alive the option of taking action into the future,” Spanberger said in an interview with the Associated Press this week. “While I like to plan for everything, on this one … I’ll let the General Assembly take this step, and then we’ll talk calendar issues later.”
Her comments reflect Democrats’ broader argument that the move is both lawful and necessary to counter GOP-led states that have already redrawn their maps to add Republican seats at President Donald Trump’s urging. But Miyares said the effort defies the nonpartisan redistricting system Virginians approved four years ago.
“Nonpartisan redistricting passed twice with wide bipartisan support,” he said. “The voters of Virginia, in a very closely divided state, approved it by 30 points. The idea was that politicians don’t get to do this. To see that being ignored now for a power grab is disappointing.”
The immediate political fallout has landed on the GOP ticket. Earle-Sears has had to miss at least four events after being called back to Richmond for the redistricting fight, leaving Republicans to campaign without their top statewide candidate in the final days before the election.
Speaking to supporters inside a small airplane hangar in Fredericksburg, Republican lieutenant governor candidate John Reid blasted Democrats for “not shooting straight with anybody,” saying the redistricting fight was designed to keep Earle-Sears off the trail in the final stretch.
“The people of Virginia said, after decades of arguing about who draws the lines, we don’t want the politicians to draw their own district lines,” Reid said. “And you know what the Democrats say? To hell with you.”
“They’re going to try to take Winsome Earle-Sears off the campaign trail. They’re going to try to rig the election, and we’re not going to tolerate this type of abuse of power,” he added.
After Reid spoke, conservative commentator Meghan McCain took the stage to voice her support for Earle-Sears, calling her “one of my Republican heroes.”
“Winsome is an inspiration for me, and I look up to her so much,” McCain said. “She’s a veteran, a mom, and she’s made political history already, and she’s going to do it again if we all fight for it.”
Earle-Sears’s husband, Terence Sears, made the personal cost explicit and opened with anger.
“I’m actually pissed off because I have to be here instead of my wife because of the shenanigans the Democrat Party has pulled to pull her off the campaign trail a week before the election,” he said.
He spoke with pride about his wife’s record of public service, from knocking on doors in tough neighborhoods to championing education and veterans’ issues across the state.
“The last four years I’ve seen my wife maybe one to two days a week,” he said. “That’s how hard she’s been working for you. I think the most time that she’s been home was four days this summer. So it’s been a sacrifice for us both, but I know she’s working hard for you.”
While Republicans were rallying in Fredericksburg, GOP lawmakers were also moving in court. On Wednesday, Senate and House Republicans sued to stop the Democratic maneuver, accusing them of bypassing the 2020 voter-approved redistricting commission that was supposed to keep politicians out of mapmaking. They asked a Southwest Virginia judge to halt the special session as unconstitutional.
WINSOME EARLE-SEARS FORCED OFF CAMPAIGN TRAIL DUE TO VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING BATTLE
The judge declined, allowing Democrats’ plan to advance for now. Miyares said he expects the fight to continue.
“Several litigators have already filed, and I’m sure this will make its way to more courts,” he said.