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Former President Barack Obama is calling on voters in Virginia to support a ballot measure this spring that would change the commonwealth’s constitution and cause new congressional district boundaries benefiting Democrats to be used in this fall’s midterm elections.
In a video posted to social media on Thursday morning, Obama noted the surge of mid-decade redistricting started last year when Texas Republicans started work to shift five Democratic seats and make them more favorable to Republicans.
Since then, California Democrats were able to redraw the lines involving five GOP-held seats to try and offset Texas’ gerrymander. Republicans in North Carolina and Missouri last year also altered a Democratic-held seat in each of their respective states to try and help the GOP.
“In April, Virginians can respond by making sure your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states,” Obama, a Democrat, said in the video. “This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall.”
Republicans hold a narrow majority in the U.S. House and are contending with the prospect of losing control of the chamber this fall when every seat is on the ballot.
Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort has proven to be a lengthy process, and legal concerns have surrounded much of the work and thrown some uncertainty into the outcome. The commonwealth’s map in place at the moment resulted in six House seats for Democrats in the 2024 election and five for Republicans. Plans offered by elected Democratic leaders this year would try and shift those lines in a way that could result in sending 10 Democrats back to the House and just one Republican.
“Democrats’ illegal gerrymandering power grab is an affront to democracy and rigs our maps to turn Virginia into a one-party state,” the Republican Party of Virginia said last month on social media, adding “It is an intentional effort to silence and disenfranchise half our Commonwealth.”
After the 2020 Census, both Democratic and Republican led states indulged in the well-worn practice of gerrymandering, drawing districts that favored their own parties and lessening the chances of competitive races.
But the series of mid-decade redraws impacting the 2026 midterms essentially represent a break from tradition and have put Democrats in the position of having to backtrack on some of their past messaging on the issue. “For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government,” Obama himself said on social media in 2020.
A statewide vote is set for April 21 on whether to change Virginia’s constitution and give the General Assembly the ability to change the maps just months before general election contests will be held. Early voting is set to start Friday.
Virginia is more of a purple state, and it’s unclear what will happen to the constitutional amendment in the April 21 special election. Republicans widely oppose the effort, and additional congressional redistricting in GOP-led Florida could lessen the impact of any changes made in Virginia.
