Asian Tribune Your Multilingual Newspaper covering World and local news News
Listen to this article
Estimated 5 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Virginia voters approved a mid-decade redistricting plan on Tuesday that could boost Democrats’ chances of winning four additional U.S. House seats in November’s midterm elections.
The constitutional amendment narrowly backed by voters bypasses a bipartisan redistricting commission. The state Supreme Court is considering the legality of the plan — which could make the referendum results meaningless — but it is the latest salvo in a flurry of moves by several states after President Donald Trump kicked off a national redistricting battle last year by urging Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts.
Trump’s goal was to help Republicans win more seats in the November elections and hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favour the party out of power during midterm elections. Until this election cycle, congressional redistricting had typically occurred once a decade, after each census.
Trump exhorted Virginians on social media earlier on Tuesday, saying a No vote was necessary to “SAVE YOUR COUNTRY!”
Democrats portrayed the Virginia redistricting as a response to Trump. It is “pushing back against what other states have done in trying to stack the deck for Donald Trump in those congressional elections,” Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger said during an online rally last week.
Ads for the “yes to redistricting” campaign featured former president Barack Obama flooded the airwaves.
Republicans pledged to continue the battle over Virginia’s new map in court.
Two Blocks from the White House27:33How the midterms are already shaping everything
Winning is a word U.S. President Donald Trump likes to hear, and while midterm elections are months away, the November vote is definitely driving his decisions today.
With the cost of living and gas prices continuing to soar, the midterms are a chance for voters to weigh in on whether Trump has delivered on his promise to put America first, considering his administration’s war with Iran and other operations stretching beyond the U.S. borders.
CBC’s Washington correspondents Paul Hunter, Willy Lowry and Katie Simpson bring us up to speed on how the midterms are influencing the political calculus, what they’re watching for and why the outcome of this vote is so crucial to Republicans and Democrats alike.
Republicans’ razor-thin margin at risk
The party occupying the White House often suffers heavy losses in the midterm election, as happened during Trump’s first term as president in 2018, when the Democrats gained 40 seats to retake control of the House. Trump’s second administration, meanwhile, has seen a spate of polls reflecting would-be voter disapproval with its handling of the economy and expansive deportation efforts.
Democrats need to gain just a few seats in November to wrest control of the House from Republicans, potentially allowing them to obstruct Trump’s agenda or even bring forth impeachment proceedings against the president or members of his administration.
After Texas sparked controversy for securing five additional House seats by redistricting its congressional maps, California responded with some gerrymandering of its own. Andrew Chang breaks down how gerrymandering works and how it could affect the outcome of the 2026 midterm elections.
Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
Currently, the Republicans hold a 217-213 advantage, with one independent who caucuses with the Republicans. There are four vacancies due to resignations.
So far, Republicans believe they can win up to nine more House seats in newly redrawn districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they can win up to five more seats in California, where voters approved a similar mid-decade redistricting effort last November, and one more seat under new court-imposed districts in Utah.
“As we saw in California, when voters have a say, they are rejecting Republicans’ attempt to rig the system,” House Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, who is chair of the Democratic Party’s congressional campaign committee, said on Tuesday after the Virginia result.
In Virginia, Democrats currently hold six of the 11 U.S. House seats under districts that were imposed by the state Supreme Court in 2021, after a bipartisan commission failed to agree on a map based on the latest census data.
The new plan could help Democrats win as many as 10 seats. Five seats in the proposed map are anchored in the Democratic stronghold of northern Virginia. Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads dilute the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia lumps together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.
As It Happens6:30Louisiana mayor says U.S. Supreme Court case threatens Black representation in Congress
A section of the Voting Rights Act that allows minorities to be represented fairly on U.S. electoral maps is being challenged in the Supreme Court by Louisiana Republicans. At the heart of the case is the small town of Mansfield, Louis. The town’s mayor, Thomas Jones Jr., tells As It Happens host Nil Nil Köksal the case is a slap in the face for him and other Black residents who’ve fought decades just to cast a vote.
Even after Virginia’s vote, the redistricting arms race is far from over. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called a special session next week to consider redrawing that state’s map, and the U.S. Supreme Court is still weighing a voting rights case in Louisiana that could allow Republicans in southern states to target additional Democratic seats.
The redistricting push presumes past voting patterns in districts will hold in November, but there is arguably a level of unpredictability in the upcoming elections not seen in quite some time. Already, some 55 House incumbents will not be running for another two-year term, a list comprised of 35 Republicans and 20 Democrats.
According to the Brookings Institution’s tracking of Congress statistics, it represents a level of turnover not seen since 1992.