Virginia Democrats Proposes Congressional Redistricting To Combat “Trump’s Redistricting War”

By Alvin H. Green IV 

Courtesy of Getty Images

Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger and her administration have proposed an amendment to the Virginia Constitution, to allow them the ability to redistrict ahead of the coming midterms and before the next scheduled redistricting date in 2031. The bill will be a temporary measure, says Spanberger, and it has already passed the General Assembly and was quickly signed by the Governor.

“I believe this measure can only lead to good things,” said first year Criminal justice major Brtandon Brown. “Honestly I wish they were doing something more perminate… not just to stop the Midterm rigging but to make sure another Trump doesn’t try to do this in the future.”

As has been stated in multiple adverts pushing the bill, the proposed congressional redrawing is a temporary measure to stop “Trump and MAGA Republicans from [creating] a permanent GOP majority in Washington.” They claim that Republican-ran states are redistricting mid-decade at Trump’s behest, in order to rig the midterms and undermine elections. 

Virginians For Fair Elections, the Political Action Committee funding this effort, has released multiple adverts insuring the public that this amendment is specifically to combat “Trump’s redistricting war” and the “MAGA Republicans rigging their states for Trump.”

In a similar vein, the Republican’s Democracy and Justice PAC has been sending out pamphlets to primarily African-American Virginians that the NAACP has called out for being misleading. A photo of the pamphlet shows Barack Obama and a quote from last March that reads“Let voters decide, not politicians,” according to a WDBJ-7 article. Under the quote and photo, the pamphlet demands its reader to vote ‘NO’ in order to “protect minority representation.”

Dr. Brenda Hale, president of Roanoke’s NAACP chapter called the move “...desperate” as well as “deceitful lies and propaganda.” The NAACP claims the quote was taken out of context in an attempt to confuse  Black voters and sway the vote in the GOPs favor. 

Obama himself has been a very vocal supporter of the Democrat’s redistricting effort. Virginians For Fair Elections, the PAC funding pro-redistricting ads, has even had him speak in some ads.

“I’m of two minds on this honestly,” said first year Political Science major Jordan Baker. “On the one hand, if they were going to redistrict the state, a temporary measure like this would probably be best to avoid a lot of controversy and still help fight Trump. One the other hand, after all of the anti-redistricting, anti-Trump stuff Abigail said on her campaign, I get why some people thinks she’s betraying them by using [what are] essentially Trump tactics.”

The special election to decide whether the amendment passes will be held on April 21, and early voting will continue until April 18.