California And Virginia Elections Give Dems Huge Wins
California And Virginia Elections Give Dems Huge Wins In Redistricting Battle
Over the last several months, Republican state legislatures have begun rare, mid-decade redistricting efforts to protect their narrow majority in the House. Tuesday’s elections in California and Virginia gave Democrats a massive win in countering the GOP’s attempt to gerrymander their way to a midterm victory.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first to counterpunch against the GOP’s redistricting effort when he announced the Election Rigging Response Act in August. The act was designed to counter Texas’ redistricting effort, which saw the state legislature abruptly implement a new congressional map that gives Republicans five new House seats.
The Election Rigging Response Act resulted in a special election being held yesterday over Prop 50. While an independent redistricting committee has controlled California’s congressional maps for the last 15 years, Prop 50 temporarily transfers control from the redistricting committee to the state legislature until 2030. Despite pronounced Republican opposition, California voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of Prop 50. According to NPR, 63.8% of California voters voted “yes” for Prop 50.
Republicans tried to frame Prop 50 as silencing Republican voices in a Blue state, but they didn’t seem to have any concerns when Texas did the same thing to the state’s Democratic voters.
It cannot be overstated how crucial Prop 50’s passage was for Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms. Before the redistricting battle began, Democrats only needed a net gain of three seats to flip control of the House. With President Donald Trump’s polling underwater, and voters increasingly feeling like his policies are actually hurting the economy, he has steadily put pressure on Red states to redraw their congressional maps to maintain the GOP’s majority. Missouri and North Carolina have already implemented new maps that give the GOP one more House seat in each state, state legislators in Florida have formed a redistricting committee, and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun called a special session focused on redistricting last week.
With Texas’ gains neutralized by California, the math becomes more manageable for Democrats. Especially considering that Virginia’s redistricting effort has become significantly more viable after Tuesday’s election results.
At the end of October, Virginia Democrats announced a surprise redistricting effort aimed at gaining two to three House seats. Virginia’s path to redistricting is a bit more complex than California’s, as it involves an amendment to the state’s constitution. The amendment needed to be passed in the General Assembly before and after an election. If the amendment passes both votes, a special election will be held so voters can decide if control of the state’s maps will remain with an independent redistricting committee or transfer to the General Assembly.
Much of Virginia’s redistricting campaign was riding on state Democrats having a strong night during Tuesday’s election. Every seat in the General Assembly was up for grabs, along with the governor’s office and the state attorney general. While the measure passed the first vote, should Republicans have flipped control of the General Assembly, the effort would’ve been dead before it could even truly get started.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
Not only did state Democrats increase their majority in the House of Delegates from 51 to 64, but they also flipped control of the governor’s office and the attorney general. This means that they likely won’t have to worry about the attorney general taking further legal action against the redistricting process. This Blue wave not only allows Virginia’s redistricting effort to continue, but it also signals that it may have a strong chance of succeeding once the public has to vote on the amendment.
Nationwide, Tuesday’s elections were a much-needed morale boost for the Democratic Party, which is still licking its wounds from Trump’s absurd 2024 victory. While the GOP will no doubt find new and inventive ways to gerrymander the midterms, Tuesday’s election results prove they won’t be able to do so without a fight.
