2026 Virginia Redistricting Amendment
In October 2025, Virginia lawmakers began considering a constitutional amendment to temporarily allow the legislature to gerrymander Virginia's congressional districts to favor Democrats. The redistricting push is part of a larger national battle to influence the partisan makeup of the House of Representatives. The Virginia General Assembly passed an amendment to redraw their map in two consecutive sessions, and is fighting litigation to hold a referendum on it on April 21st for enactment.
Timeline
First Passage
In 2025, Texas lawmakers adopted a new congressional map, which is expected to grant Republicans as many as five additional congressional seats. Other states followed suit with their own redistricting plans.On October 23, 2025, The New York Times reported that Virginia was planning a constitutional amendment to allow for redistricting.
On October 24, House Majority Leader Charniele Herring introduced a resolution that would allow the Virginia General Assembly to consider constitutional amendments related to redistricting during a special election. On October 27, the resolution was agreed to by the House of Delegates in a 50 to 42 vote, and on October 29, the state Senate agreed to it in a 21 to 17 vote.
On October 28, four Democratic Virginia Delegates introduced the constitutional amendment. On the same day, Jason Miyares, the Republican Attorney General of Virginia who was also running for a second term, issued an saying that the process required to add a constitutional amendment to the ballot cannot be shortened by the General Assembly calling a special session during an ongoing election.
On October 29, the Virginia House of Delegates passed the amendment in a 51 to 42 vote on party lines. Before the vote took place, there was contentious debate, and the Sergeant-at-Arms was called to the floor at one point. The bill then moved on to the Senate Privileges & Elections Committee, which approved the bill in an 8 to 6 vote the same day. The Senate passed the bill 21-16 on October 31, sending it to the 164th General Assembly for further consideration.
Second Passage and Litigation
Democrats retained and expanded their majority in the House of Delegates in the 2025 election, in addition to flipping all three executive offices. Upon winning the trifecta, the Democratic legislative caucuses intended to re-approve the amendment and send it to a Spring 2026 referendum for consideration. Upon approval of the referendum, the amendment and approved map would take effect prior to the 2026 congressional elections. On January 16, 2026, the Senate passed the constitutional amendment a second time, following the House of Delegates which had done so earlier in the week. The election day was set to take place on April 21, close to when Florida governor Ron DeSantis plans to call his own special session to gerrymander Florida's congressional districts to increase the number of Republican seats within the state's delegation.A lawsuit was filed in Tazewell County General District Court against the House and Senate clerks, seeking an injunction against the effort. The lawsuit argued that the purpose of the special session was to settle a budget dispute in 2024, and although the session was still technically open, the new bill was outside of the scope of the session, making it invalid. Delegate Terry Kilgore, state Senators Bill Stanley and Ryan McDougle, and a citizen member of the commonwealth's bipartisan redistricting commission were named as plaintiffs. The lawsuit was initially delayed, as the case's judge, Jack Hurley Jr., declined to intervene in legislative proceedings until the General Assembly had passed the amendment, resulting in Republican plaintiffs temporarily dropping the case. Judge Hurley ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 1999 as a Republican.
Following the General Assembly's re-passage of the amendment to the ballot in January 2026, the case was expanded to request a ruling on all of the following:
- Whether or not the General Assembly was able to pass a constitutional amendment during a special session not called to consider it;
- Whether or not the General Assembly had violated a statutory mandate which requires it to post any proposed constitutional amendment at circuit clerk offices for public inspection at least 90 days before the election on which it would be voted on;
- Whether or not the General Assembly's first passage had actually met the requirement to pass the amendment both before and after a general election, as early voting had started over a month prior.
On January 27, Hurley ruled that the amendment was unlawful, concurring both that the special session did not have the authority to pass such a measure and that the House of Delegates scheduled the election too early to satisfy the postage requirement. Hurley noted that, by the time of the 163rd Virginia General Assembly's passage of the redistricting amendment, over 1 million Virginians had already voted for the general election, over 33% of total turnout. For this, he agreed on the third and final question posed by the Republican plaintiffs, that being that the amendment did not sufficiently pass scrutiny for having been passed "before the general election."
Virginia Democratic leaders condemned the decision and announced an intention to appeal the ruling, with House Speaker Don Scott calling the case an example of “court-shopping, plain and simple." They also pointed out that the postage requirement was removed whenever Virginia adopted their current constitution, and is only still in effect because of an oversight in the state code. However, this appeal would be heard by the Court of Appeals of Virginia, which was expected to rather rule in favor of Hurley, or at minimum stay his injunction against the amendment's passage. Later that day, the Virginia Senate passed SB769, which would repeal the 90-day postage requirement before the election and redirect the appellate process from the Court of Appeals of Virginia to the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, which denied to block the 163rd General Assembly from passing the same amendment in November 2025. This measure must be passed in the House of Delegates and signed by Governor Spanberger by February 19.