The Virginia Supreme Court rejected the Democrats’ redistricting plan in the US | US Midterm Elections 2026 News

Virginia’s highest court threw out a new election card designed to flip four Republican-held US congressional seats to Democrats, handing President Donald Trump’s party a victory in the run-up to the November midterm elections.

Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize redistricting. Voters narrowly approved the amendment on April 21, but the court’s ruling renders the outcome of that vote meaningless.

“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court said in its opinion.

Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia’s redrawn map, as part of an effort to offset Republican redistricting elsewhere at the urging of Trump. That ruling, combined with a recent US Supreme Court decision that the Voting Rights Actyou boosted the Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into the midterms.

The ruling could boost Republican hopes of retaining their majority in the US House in the midterms. Democrats pursued the Virginia measure as part of a nationwide battle over redrawing U.S. district lines that the Republican president began last year.

In its ruling, the Virginia court agreed with Republican claims that the state’s Democratic-majority legislature did not follow proper procedure in approving the referendum before submitting it to voters. A day after the referendum, a county judge blocked the state from certifying the results, calling the ballot language “flagrantly misleading.”

Trump responded to the decision on Truth Social, calling it a “huge victory for the Republican Party and America in Virginia.”

“The Supreme Court of Virginia just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J TRUMP.”

Republican advantage

The Virginia court’s ruling adds to the Republican momentum in the redistricting battle. It came on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, driven by its conservative majority, that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, opening the door for Republican-led southern states to gut Democratic-held majority-Black and majority-Latino districts. Black and Latino voters tend to support Democratic candidates.

Already Republican-controlled states, such as LouisianaAlabama and Tennessee took steps to draw new maps in time for the November election, even delaying party primaries to give lawmakers time.

Last year, Trump pushed Texas Republicans to break up their electoral map and draw new district lines targeting five Democratic U.S. House incumbents. After Texas did, Democrats in California reconfigured their state’s districts, targeting five Republican incumbents. Other states followed suit.

Virginia voters approved the Democratic-backed map in a special election on April 21 by a margin of 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent, according to an Associated Press count. The referendum was the final step in a complicated legislative maneuver to sidestep a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2020 that put redistricting in the hands of a bipartisan commission.

If Virginia’s map remains invalid, Republicans could end up with an advantage in as many as 10 House seats statewide, pending the outcome of current Republican redistricting efforts in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee.

Republicans can afford to lose only two net seats in November’s election to retain control of the US House.

The process of redrawing maps, known as redistricting, usually occurs once a decade to reflect population changes as measured by the national census conducted every 10 years. The ongoing and recently completed redistricting efforts by Republican and Democratic state legislatures have been motivated by a desire for partisan advantage.

The US Supreme Court’s rulings only accelerated the battle. In addition to the states already seeking immediate redistricting, other states have made it clear they intend to take a maximally partisan approach to redistricting before the 2028 election.

Under Virginia state law, two consecutive legislatures — with a state election in between — must approve a proposed constitutional amendment before it can be brought to a vote.

The Democratic legislative majority approved the amendment in October, days before the November state election. Democrats, who gained additional legislative seats in that vote, then passed the amendment a second time in January and scheduled the referendum for April.

Republicans filed several lawsuits, alleging that there was no runoff election because early voting had already begun when the amendment was first passed and that lawmakers violated other procedural steps to advance the measure.

Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House, praised the ruling on X on Friday.

“The Supreme Court of Virginia has confirmed what we’ve believed from the beginning – the hastily drawn, nefarious gerrymander was unconstitutional. This ruling is a victory for democracy and ensures that Virginians have fair representation in Congress.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries criticized the court’s decision, saying that reversing the “will of more than three million voters will not stand.”

“We are exploring all options to reverse this shocking decision,” I posted on X.