{"id":12135,"date":"2026-04-22T04:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/22\/virginia-voters-approve-new-congressional-maps-in-blow-to-trump-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:21:01","slug":"virginia-voters-approve-new-congressional-maps-in-blow-to-trump-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/04\/22\/virginia-voters-approve-new-congressional-maps-in-blow-to-trump-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia voters approve new congressional maps in blow to Trump – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Voters in Virginia on Tuesday approved new congressional maps intended to boost Democrats\u2019 chances of retaking the House of Representatives<\/a>, in the latest blow to Donald Trump\u2019s effort to use mid-decade redistricting to preserve his control of Congress.<\/p>\n

The tit-for-tat redistricting battle began last year after Trump pressed Texas\u2019s Republican-controlled legislature to redraw that state\u2019s congressional maps<\/a> in a bid to oust as many as five Democratic House lawmakers in the November midterm elections.<\/p>\n

California voters retaliated<\/a> by approving new maps that could flip five Republican-held seats, and in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, the newly elected Democratic governor, backed an effort to redraw her state\u2019s maps following her January inauguration. Tuesday\u2019s referendum could help Democrats win four additional House seats in November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

Under the new maps<\/a>, Democrats are now favored to win in 10 of Virginia\u2019s 11 districts. In the current delegation, Democrats hold six seats and Republicans five.<\/p>\n

The referendum, which changes the state constitution to set aside through the 2030 census a nonpartisan redistricting process voters authorized six years ago, must still be approved by the state legislature for a second time.<\/p>\n

It is also the subject of a challenge before the state supreme court, which could still issue a ruling disqualifying its results.<\/p>\n

Polls showed a close race in the weeks leading up to Tuesday\u2019s vote, with signs that right-leaning voters in Virginia\u2019s rural areas were incensed by new maps that would see many of them represented by lawmakers who live in the state\u2019s northern suburbs outside Washington DC.<\/p>\n

The surveys also showed that voters were divided on Spanberger\u2019s performance as governor, with Republicans<\/a> accusing her of lying about her moderate credentials on the campaign trail then quickly pivoting left as governor, including by supporting the referendum.<\/p>\n

The race saw heavy spending by Democratic-linked groups and others, who poured more than $64m into the main committee backing the referendum. Groups opposing redistricting brought in around $30m.<\/p>\n

Barack Obama recorded television ads in favor of the yes vote, while those opposed aired their own ads focused on past comments he had made criticizing gerrymandering. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican who preceded Spanberger as governor, campaigned heavily for the no vote.<\/p>\n

Obama celebrated the result on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations, Virginia!\u201d the former US president posted<\/a> on social media. \u201cRepublicans are trying to tilt the midterm elections in their favor, but they haven\u2019t done it yet. Thanks for showing us what it looks like to stand up for our democracy and fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The referendum\u2019s success may embolden Florida\u2019s Republican-controlled state assembly, which governor Ron DeSantis has called into a special session beginning next month to consider changes to its congressional map. The GOP could pick up as many as three more seats depending on how the legislature draws the boundaries.<\/p>\n

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said Tuesday\u2019s result should serve as a warning to DeSantis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Florida Republicans proceed with this illegal scheme, they will only create more prime-pick up opportunities for Democrats<\/a>,\u201d he wrote in a statement. \u201cWe are prepared to take them all on, and we are prepared to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to Virginia, Missouri and North Carolina have redrawn their congressional maps to remove potentially one Democratic representative each. Democrats are also expected to pick up a seat in Utah thanks to a court ruling<\/a> that required the state to draw new boundaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voters in Virginia on Tuesday approved new congressional maps intended to boost Democrats\u2019 chances of retaking the House of Representatives, in the latest blow to Donald Trump\u2019s effort to use mid-decade redistricting to preserve his control of Congress. The tit-for-tat redistricting battle began last year after Trump pressed Texas\u2019s Republican-controlled legislature to redraw that state\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}