The Virginia General Assembly passed a proposed redrawn congressional map on Friday that favors Democratic candidates in 10 of the commonwealth’s 11 districts.
The next stop for the redistricting prototype, which is housed in the 2026 caboose budget bill, is Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk. The governor could sign the bill in full, line item veto the map, amend the legislation or opt not to do anything, in which case the bill would become law after seven days.
House of Delegates Minority Leader Terry Kilgore urged his colleagues in the House of Delegates to vote against the bill on the floor. After it passed, he urged Spanberger against signing the bill in an impromptu press conference on Friday.
“This has been a half-baked idea all along,” Kilgore, a Republican from Scott County, told reporters. “There’s just all kinds of issues with this.”
“We’re just calling on the Governor to do the right thing,” he added.
House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat from Portsmouth, told reporters on Friday that he expects Spanberger to sign HB 29, the caboose budget bill, within 24 hours of its passage.
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment regarding the legislation on Friday.
Virginia Democrats have called the redistricting effort necessary, after Republican President Donald Trump called on conservative-led states to change their congressional maps in favor of GOP candidates ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Court case questions remain
The Supreme Court of Virginia issued a decision Feb. 13 that said the April 21 referendum can move forward as the court prepares to hear an appeal of a January ruling by the Tazewell County Circuit Court. That ruling sought to halt the redistricting effort after the court determined that the redistricting effort ran afoul of the state constitution.
The same Tazewell County court ruled again in favor of Republicans on Thursday in a separate lawsuit filed by national Republican groups and two of Virginia’s sitting Republican congressmen.
That second ruling called the redistricting effort “legally invalid,” and specifically tells state officials to stop “administering, preparing for, taking any action to further the procedure for the referendum or otherwise move forward with causing an election” on the grounds that the legislation behind the redistricting is full of legal problems.
Attorney General Jay Jones said his office plans to “immediately appeal” the second ruling as well.
“I’m confident that the Supreme Court is going to handle this latest Tazewell decision like they handled the last one and we’ll continue to move forward with the election as proposed,” Scott said.
In the meantime, elections officials have halted their preparations ahead of the March 6 start date for early voting because of the most recent ruling from the Tazewell County Circuit Court, said Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, who chairs the House Privileges and Elections Committee.