Virginians voted in favor of Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Democrats’ effort to completely overhaul the commonwealth’s congressional map to favor Democrats, the Associated Press reported Tuesday evening.
The Associated Press called the race in favor of “yes” at 8:50pm eastern time with an estimated 81% of the votes counted. At the time of the call, 50.3% voted in favor of the redistricting effort, while 49.7% voted against.
The AP called “yes” despite the slim margin because the outstanding ballots were in areas breaking hard for “yes.”
While 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans currently represent Virginia in Washington, the new Virginia congressional map will likely give Democrats a 10-1 advantage after the midterms. Democrats will hold this massive advantage despite the fact that Virginia went blue by less than 6% in the 2024 presidential election and voted for Spanberger by 15 points in the 2025 gubernatorial election.
The new congressional map is expected to result in 10 Democrats and one Republican by stretching congressional districts in Northern Virginia and areas of Charlottesville deep into southern and eastern portions of the state that are rural and reliably red.
Even prior to Tuesday night’s election result, voters in Virginia expressed concern with the language on the ballot. The Virginia Supreme Court decided to wait until after the election to hear the case over whether the language was fair. Notably, this is the same court that decided the current map was a fair one to begin with.
A recent poll conducted by Heritage Action found that nearly 50% of voters were confused by the term “restore fairness.”
“It’s misleading,” Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told The Daily Signal. “That’s why I’m a plaintiff in a lawsuit to challenge the wording of the ballot.”
“We’re optimistic that even the blindest of advocates for justice can see that this wording of this question is unconstitutional,” Cline added.
Now that the map has passed, the Virginia Supreme Court is expected to take cases challenging the map.
The Virginia redistricting effort is a blow to Republicans seeking to hold their slim House majority. The most recent majority is 217-213, as of Tuesday, when Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., resigned.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats across the country poured resources into the state, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who poured at least $70 million into the race from his super PAC, the House Majority PAC.
Nevertheless, Florida could decide to redistrict in the coming weeks to claw back the potential losses in Virginia.
