Macy and Perriello have more money than Cline and McGuire, but will new Democratic maps put them in same district?

Democratic challengers Beth Macy and Tom Perriello now have more campaign money than the two Republican incumbents they’d like to face, Ben Cline and John McGuire, a development that could complicate Democratic plans to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

The latest campaign finance reports, released over the weekend, show that Perriello has more than twice what McGuire has on hand: $676,616 for Perriello, a former congressman from Albemarle County, compared to $314,375 for McGuire, a first-term House member from Goochland County.

Macy, a best-selling Roanoke author making her first foray into politics, has $527,708 on hand compared to Cline’s $521,194.

For comparison purposes, both have more money in hand for two districts that the national party hasn’t officially targeted than does Shannon Taylor, a former statewide candidate the favored Democratic contender in the 1st District, which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has officially listed as a target seat. That district is now represented by Republican Rob Wittman, who has $3.178 million in hand. Taylor has $480,967, an impressive amount for a challenger but still less than what Macy and Perriello have in redder districts.

Among Democratic challengers in Virginia, only former Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia Beach has more money: $1,010,268 in her bid to unseat Republican incumbent Jen Kiggans, who has $2,319,912. 

Here’s how this could complicate plans by Democrats in the General Assembly to redraw congressional lines to produce more favorable results for the party in this fall’s congressional midterms and counter moves by Republicans in other states who are doing the same. That would require a constitutional amendment, which Democrats hope to send to voters in a special election on April 21, although a Tazewell County judge last week issued an order blocking the vote. That will ultimately be resolved at a higher court; meanwhile, Democrats have forged ahead to have things in place if a higher court rules that the referendum can go forward.

Virginia’s current congressional delegation is six Democrats, five Republicans. Some General Assembly Democrats, most notably the formidable state Sen. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, have vowed to create a 10-1 map that would eliminate four Republican seats. Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News and chair of the House Privileges and Elections Committee, had promised to release a proposed map by Jan. 30 but did not. House and Senate Democrats appear deadlocked over which candidates the new map should be drawn to favor.

Unofficial maps have suggested the only realistic way to achieve a 10-1 map is to combine Roanoke with Charlottesville and Albemarle County, all Democratic-voting areas now in Republican districts. The political challenge there is that would put Macy and Perriello (along with Albemarle supervisor Mike Pruitt, another Democratic contender in the 5th) in the same district, with only one able to win the party’s nomination. 

These new campaign finance reports sharpen that question: A Roanoke-Charlottesville map would put the party’s second and third best fundraisers, among challengers, in the same district. That might put two top Virginia Democrats in an awkward spot: Sen. Tim Kaine and Gov. Abigail Spanberger have endorsed both Macy and Perriello on the theory that they’d be running in different districts, not against one another.

The argument for putting the two prodigious fundraisers in the same district is that’s the only way to achieve the desired 10-1 outcome — and that if major changes aren’t made to the 5th and especially the 6th, then the Republican incumbents would still be favored. 

There are at least two competing theories: 

One is to somehow draw a 10-1 map that keeps Macy and Perriello separate. In effect, draw maps designed to benefit the four biggest fundraisers — Luria in Virginia Beach, Taylor in Henrico County, Perriello in Albemarle County and Macy in Roanoke — although it’s unclear if a favorable district can be drawn for Macy without including Charlottesville and Albemarle.

The other is to draw a 10-1 map that creates a Democratic-leaning district that runs from Northern Virginia into the Shenandoah Valley — and has no incumbent. Punchbowl News reported that such a map was shown to Virginia’s congressional delegation several weeks ago. That map would open the way for other candidates, such as former Del. Wendy Gooditis of Clarke County, who has already announced, and potentially Del. Dan Helmer of Loudoun County, who has sought a congressional seat before and to whom House Democrats in Richmond are indebted because he was the chief fundraiser for them in last year’s campaign. 

Those pushing for that map must now contend with the fundraising totals by Macy and Perriello, and whether it’s politically wise to cast one of them aside by drawing them into the same district. However, leaving the 5th and 6th districts much as they are would also seem politically risky for Democrats. Even with Macy’s haul, the 6th is the state’s second-most Republican district, so money alone may not necessarily make that district competitive for Democrats, but it could set in motion a more vigorous and serious challenge than Cline has faced thus far.

In four of the five Republican-held districts, the top Democratic challenger outraised the GOP incumbent in the fourth quarter of 2025. The lone exception was in the 9th District in Southwest Virginia, now held by Morgan Griffith, R-Salem and the only Republican whose seat would be preserved under a 10-1 map.