By Taylor Boyd
A proposed amendment that would have allowed the Virginia Constitution to grant the General Assembly authority to redraw the state’s congressional districts was struck down last week by a Tazewell County Circuit Court judge.
Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled the proposed constitutional amendment did not follow the proper procedure required for such a change. As a result, House Joint Resolution 6007, which proposed the redistricting amendment, was invalidated.
Supporters of the proposed amendment have said the change was needed to respond to redistricting efforts in other states and would temporarily allow lawmakers to redraw congressional district lines ahead of future elections.
Before the ruling, local legislators had urged constituents to vote against a referendum tied to the proposal, which would have temporarily amended Virginia’s Constitution to give the legislature the power to redraw congressional districts during an April 21 special election.
Virginia currently has 11 congressional districts, six represented by Democrats and five by Republicans.
Under the proposed redistricting, Del. Eric Phillips, R-Martinsville, said the map would shift to 10 Democratic districts and one Republican district.
“That’s not representative of Virginia, Virginia’s purple. So right now, I would say Virginia slightly leans blue, but it’s maybe 51-49. The 9th District, the 5th District, the 6th District — all these districts currently, those regions of Virginia are conservative,” Phillips said.
Phillips said the proposal would draw district lines stretching from Northern Virginia to the North Carolina border to collect enough Democratic voters to justify creating Democratic-leaning congressional districts.
“Which is insane. What’s going on in Arlington has nothing to do with what’s going on in Anderson Mill in Pittsylvania County. They don’t have the same needs; they don’t need the same representation because they’re so different,” he said.
Phillips also said the proposal would set a troubling precedent, noting Virginia has never temporarily amended its Constitution.
He said he is concerned the change would not remain temporary.
“That once it’s voted on, just like many things, they’ll find a crisis, a new reason to subjugate rural parts of Virginia to Northern Virginia’s influence, and we don’t want that, we don’t need that. Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you shouldn’t want that because we have such different interests and lifestyles and needs in our area versus Northern Virginia,” Phillips said.
Phillips added he believes the proposal is unconstitutional and “a slap in the face to the voters of Virginia.”
Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, said stopping the redistricting effort is vital to maintaining election integrity and representative democracy.
“The Democrats literally want to take the current maps, which were drawn by an independent commission and certified by the Virginia Supreme Court, and gerrymander them for the next three congressional terms; then they’ll return the maps to the people’s independent redistricting commission,” Williams said.
Williams said the proposal bypassed the Privileges and Elections Committee, which typically handles such matters, and instead moved through the Appropriations Committee.
“Nobody knew that it was coming. The Democrats have continued to speedball this thing through, lawfully or unlawfully,” he said.
To oppose the referendum, Williams encouraged voters to stay informed and share information.
“Everyone needs to show up at the polls and vote ‘no’ and say, ‘we already decided that…politicians out of our maps is what we want for the Commonwealth,’” Williams said.
Williams said he is sponsoring legislation that would require clearer ballot language if the proposal were to move forward.
“I suggested a ballot question that was fair and designed to be approachable and readable and understanding of everyone,” he said.
Background
Williams said the issue dates back to 2019 and 2020, when Virginia voters pushed for an independent redistricting commission.
Nearly 66% of voters approved the commission during the Nov. 3, 2020, election.
“They were able to redraw the maps of all of the state and congressional and legislative districts after the 2020 census based on population and also based on the number of parameters or desires, expectations, provisions, whatever you would like to call that,” Williams said.
The maps aimed to maintain contiguous localities, keep communities of shared interests together, and eliminate political gerrymandering.
After the commission reached a stalemate, Williams said the Virginia Supreme Court finalized the maps, which have been in use since.
Williams said the current controversy followed statements by President Donald Trump encouraging Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps to gain seats.
“What happened recently is (President) Donald Trump stated openly where he called on Republicans and GOP leading majority states to redistrict their maps so as to increase the number of congressional seats that could favor Republicans in their state,” Williams said. “Then the Democrats here in Virginia said, ‘Well, if they’re going to redistrict in their state and rig the game, rig the system in their state, then we need to redistrict in our state so that we could prevent or stand up to Donald Trump and his bullying of other states.’ That’s their logic, which is absurd.”
Williams said changing Virginia’s Constitution would allow the party in power to override the independent commission’s work and influence future elections.
“This would require the people handing that power back over to the Party in the majority, and letting them restore fairness is the big, ambiguous, virtue signaling language that the Democrats decided would be the most helpful explanation of why they would want to be doing something like this,” he said.
If approved, Williams said the proposal would also cost the state $5 million.
