The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Virginia Democrats’ request to revive a voter-approved pro-Democratic congressional map, leaving in place a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that blocked the plan over claimed procedural violations tied to a state constitutional re
When the U.S. Supreme Court declined to pause Virginia’s congressional redistricting fight, it effectively snapped shut a last-chance opening for Democrats trying to gain seats in November’s midterm elections.
In a brief. unsigned order issued Friday. the justices rejected a request from Virginia Democrats to revive a voting map tied to a voter-approved initiative meant to flip four Republican-held U.S.. House seats to Democrats.. The action came after the Virginia Supreme Court. in a 4-3 decision on May 8. threw out the map and sided with Republicans who had challenged it.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s order provided no rationale, and no justice publicly dissented.
Democrats had asked the U.S.. Supreme Court to halt the Virginia ruling. arguing it “deprived voters. candidates and the Commonwealth (Virginia) of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts.” The petition also pointed to a 2023 U.S.. Supreme Court ruling that said state courts “may not transgress the ordinary bounds of judicial review such that they arrogate to themselves the power vested in state legislatures to regulate federal elections.”
Virginia Republicans, including Virginia Senate Republican Leader Ryan McDougle, welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection. McDougle said: “The Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed what we always knew: you cannot violate the Constitution to change the Constitution.”
The original pro-Democratic map had been approved by Virginia voters in an April 21 special election. winning 51.7% to 48.3% with about 3.1 million votes cast.. But the Virginia Supreme Court said the Democratic lawmakers failed to follow proper procedures when they rushed to approve the referendum in the state legislature in time to put the ballot initiative before voters ahead of the midterms.
At the center of the dispute was a mid-decade redistricting maneuver that Democrats and Republicans have both framed through different legal lenses.. The effort was described as the final step in a complicated plan to sidestep a state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2020 that put redistricting in the hands of a bipartisan commission.
A day earlier, the conservative-majority U.S.. Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for Alabama Republicans to pursue a congressional map more favorable to their party ahead of the midterms.. With control of Congress at stake—Republicans holding slim majorities in the House and Senate—the Virginia outcome matters in a state with 11 seats in the 435-member House.
The clock on this fight is part of a larger national push that has already reshaped state strategies.. At Trump’s urging. Republican-governed Texas redrew its electoral map last year to try to flip five Democratic-held House seats. leading Democratic-led California to reconfigure its congressional map to target five Republican-held seats.. Multiple other states have joined the fray. creating an unusual mid-decade battle over district lines rather than waiting for the start of a new decade.
Black and Latino voters tend to support Democratic candidates. a factor Republicans have sought to leverage as Democrats worry about the consequences of the broader legal shift.. Democrats also suffered a blow when the U.S.. Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority in April gutted a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. opening the door for Republican-led Southern states to dismantle Democratic-held majority-Black and majority-Latino districts ahead of the November elections.
Close to $100 million was spent by Democratic- and Republican-affiliated groups on the Virginia referendum campaign, underscoring how much money—and political pressure—has been poured into a vote that never made it to the midterm elections as approved.
The legal challenges in Virginia mirror the broader fight: a voter-approved map moved forward through referendum politics. then was blocked by state court objections. and finally met the U.S.. Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene—while a separate congressional map case advanced for Alabama Republicans after the justices cleared the way on Monday.
In addition to the dispute before the U.S. Supreme Court, a judge in a separate case on April 22 also blocked the pro-Democratic map, acting in a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee.
For Democrats seeking to shift the balance of power in Washington, the Supreme Court’s decision Friday removes one of the most direct routes to take four Republican-held House districts into the party’s column.
Supreme Court Virginia Democrats voting map redistricting midterm elections U.S. House Alabama map Ryan McDougle Don Scott Voting Rights Act partisan gerrymandering