Virginia legislative leaders called their members back into special session to consider the first steps in a plan to redraw U.S. House district lines, in what will amount to a long-shot effort to capture two Republican-held seats in Congress just months before voters head to the polls in next year’s midterm elections.
Lawmakers were informed Thursday afternoon that they would convene for a special session on Monday to consider a handful of bills that would kick off the redistricting process, according to an email seen by Pluribus News.
Democrats have not released a proposed map, and rank-and-file lawmakers who spoke to Pluribus News were unsure of what the party might attempt in the remapping scheme.
But sources say the effort to redraw district lines, first reported by the New York Times, would likely target Rep. Jen Kiggans (R), who represents a Hampton Roads-based seat, and Rep. Rob Wittman (R), whose district covers the western Chesapeake Bay, including parts of suburban Richmond.
Kiggans won re-election in 2024 by just 4 percentage points, while Wittman won re-election by a 13-point margin that year.
“We are coming back to address actions by the Trump administration,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D) told the Times.
Unlike in states such as Texas, Missouri and North Carolina, where Republican lawmakers have strong-armed new U.S. House district lines in recent months through legislation, Virginia Democrats face an arduous path.
To redraw districts, Virginia must amend its constitution. That requires votes of two successive sessions of the state legislature. The first step will be to convene on Monday, in a legislature in which Democrats hold 51 of 100 seats in the House of Delegates and 21 of 40 seats in the Senate, to pass a constitutional amendment allowing a statewide referendum.
Next month’s elections are expected to grow those majorities. That new legislature, which will reconvene in January, would have to approve the proposed constitutional amendment again. Then voters would be asked to approve a statewide referendum, possibly as early as April, according to one lawmaker with knowledge of the plan.
Democrats have a chance to convene a special session in the first place because of a technical carve-out: The legislature never formally closed a special session called last year by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), allowing legislative leaders to return to Richmond without Youngkin’s authorization.
Republican redistricting experts expressed skepticism at Democratic plans, especially after Democrats advocated for an independent redistricting commission to draw congressional boundaries in 2020.
“I’d really like to see the language of their amendment. I’d like to see how they plan on doing this. Is it a clean repeal? Is it a trigger?” said Adam Kincaid, who heads the National Republican Redistricting Trust. “They’re clearly afraid of putting this on the November ballot this year, so they’re going to try to put it on a low turnout special election in April.”
“It’s a lot of hoops to jump through. And Virginia is not California,” Kincaid said. “They’re doing this now because it’s their last chance to do it.”
Democrats have been incensed by Republican efforts to redraw congressional district lines in the middle of a decade, an initiative backed by the Trump administration in hopes of retaining control of the U.S. House in midterm elections that are typically difficult for an incumbent president’s party.
Democrats have fought back in California, where voters will decide next month on a ballot measure that would likely endanger five Republican incumbents, and in Illinois and Maryland, where lawmakers are considering whether to redraw boundary lines.
Virginia Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas (D) seemed to hint in August that her state would do the same. Responding to a social media post from former President Barack Obama decrying Texas redistricting efforts, Lucas wrote: “Every state in the nation should follow suit. Stay tuned for Virginia…”