Virginia Democrats on Thursday night vowed to axe four Republicans from the state’s U.S. House delegation, a direct response to the Supreme Court ruling that same evening that Texas’ extreme Republican gerrymander is legal.
“I got something waiting for Texas…” Virginia state Senate President Louise Lucas wrote in a post on X Thursday night in response to the Supreme Court’s decision allowing Texas’ congressional map that ousts as many as five Democrats from the state’s delegation to be used in the 2026 midterms.
SCOTUS on Thursday night reversed a lower court ruling that had said Texas’ new map was an illegal racial gerrymander. The 6-3 conservative court majority instead said that Texas’ map was a legal partisan gerrymander, and blessed the state to implement the new district lines for the November elections.
“REDistricting” by Tim Campbell
Virginia state House Speaker Don Scott said in a fundraising email Thursday night that in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, Democrats in Virginia will pursue a new 10-1 gerrymander, saying that it is a response to being “bullied by Republicans trying to rig state maps for control of Congress in the midterms.”
“We didn’t want to have to consider drawing a 10D-1R map. We didn’t want to have to do this. But where I grew up, if a bully came and punched you in the mouth, you better punch back. That’s what this is about,” Scott wrote.
The Virginia redistricting effort is almost identical to the one California pulled off earlier this year. Like in California, Virginia voters will decide in a ballot referendum whether to suspend the state’s independent redistricting commission and allow the Democratic-controlled Legislature to redraw the congressional maps.
If Virginia Democrats are successful, they could bring the gerrymandering war President Donald Trump started to a draw.
Of course, other wild cards remain.
Related | Yet another red state weighs passing an extreme gerrymander
Indiana Republicans are currently debating a new map that would erase Democratic representation in their congressional delegation—though a contingent of Republicans in the Indiana Senate are not onboard with the effort and questions remain if the new gerrymander will pass.
Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has also said that Florida will redraw its maps to erase Democratic-held districts.
“Keep in mind that even with the TX map upheld by SCOTUS, Republicans [are] still on track for a very minimal overall gain from redistricting, with FL/IN/LA/VA the biggest remaining question marks,” election analyst Dave Wasserman wrote in a post on X.
However, no matter what happens, Republicans are still in deep trouble in the 2026 midterms.
Republicans severely underperformed in a high-turnout special election in Tennessee on Tuesday, raising questions about whether Republicans in more competitive seats could survive the blue wave that’s forming.
“Tonight is a sign that 2026 is going to be a bitch of an election cycle,” an unnamed House Republican told Politico after the Tennessee special. “Republicans can survive if we play team and the Trump administration officials play smart. Neither is certain.”
