Virginia’s House of Delegates passed a constitutional amendment to redraw Virginia’s congressional map in a 51-42 party-line vote on Wednesday after it was reported out of the House Privileges and Elections Committee earlier in the day.
The amendment went to the state Senate floor, where it was reported out of that chamber’s Privileges and Elections Committee on an 8-6 party-line vote. The amendment will need to be read twice more on the Senate floor, once on Thursday and again on Friday, before it goes to a vote in the chamber.
The text for the proposed constitutional amendment was released Tuesday, the second day of the General Assembly’s special session centered on the effort. The measure, championed by Del. Rodney Willett, D-Henrico County, would provide “explicit authority” to the General Assembly to modify one or more congressional districts outside of the standard 10-year redistricting cycle.
Trigger language is included in the legislation that allows for off-schedule redrawing of Virginia’s congressional map to take place only if another state in the U.S. has undergone redistricting outside of the standard cycle or for any purpose other than complying with a state or federal court order to remedy an unlawful or unconstitutional district map.
Several Republican-controlled states have already done so, starting with Texas, followed by Missouri and North Carolina. Democratic-controlled California has scheduled a referendum to do so on Nov. 4.
The Virginia constitutional amendment comes with an expiration date, however. It limits the ability of the General Assembly to redistrict the state’s congressional maps to roughly five years: between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030, in response to actions taken by another state within that same time frame.
Republicans have decried the effort as “unconstitutional,” while Democrats have characterized it as necessary given the actions in other states ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
House lawmakers on the amendment’s passage
“We had to give the voters of Virginia the option to make a change if they so wanted. That’s all we’ve done today, we’ve preserved the option to go to the voters,” House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said during an impromptu press conference after the House vote. “If the voters say no and the will of the voters of Virginia is that we don’t do this, then that’s where we’ll stand.”
Scott pointed out that there are months left in the process. The constitutional amendment will need to be passed again during the 2026 General Assembly session before it goes to the voters in a referendum, likely in spring.
House Minority Leader Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County, pointed out the current political makeup of Virginia’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives: five Republicans, six Democrats, during a separate presser held by GOP delegates after the House vote.
“How much fairer can you get than that?” Kilgore said. “This is a power grab on the other side, plain and simple.”
Del. Chris Obenshain, R-Montgomery County, argued that though the constitutional amendment does not mention the bipartisan election commission, it “rips the heart right out of that commission.”
“The entire purpose of that commission was to get gerrymandering out of that process. It was to take away the power to gerrymander. This puts it right back in,” he said.
Del. Joe McNamara, R-Roanoke County, argued that other states going through a mid-decade redistricting process don’t have a bipartisan election commission to draw their congressional lines.
“That’s what makes us special and that’s why this is so dangerous to the commonwealth of Virginia,” he said.
Republicans have set up “multiple parallel avenues of litigation” to challenge the effort to redraw Virginia’s congressional maps, said Del. Tom Garrett, R-Louisa County.
Those avenues of litigation include a complaint by Republicans that questions the constitutionality of the process. It was filed in the Tazewell County Circuit Court, and a hearing is set for Nov. 5.