Obama endorses Virginia redistricting push with early voting set to begin
By Fredreka Schouten, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Barack Obama on Thursday threw his support behind a redistricting effort in Virginia that aims to flip four Republican-held US House seats ahead of November’s midterm elections.
In a video endorsement, Obama urged Virginians to support a referendum on a new map to ensure “your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states.”
Obama’s public backing comes a day after the state Supreme Court cleared the way for the April 21 election in which voters will decide whether to change the state’s constitution to allow for the map redraw. Early voting opens Friday.
Virginia’s high-profile fight is the latest front in a mid-decade redistricting battle that began last year in Texas at President Donald Trump’s behest in an effort to gain more seats that are favorable to Republicans. So far, the coast-to-coast effort has yielded nine more GOP-friendly seats and six that favor Democrats.
The map proposed by Democrats, who control the Virginia legislature, targets Republican-held seats, largely by snaking districts out from the heavily Democratic suburbs that surround Washington, DC. If successful, Democrats could end up controlling 10 of the state’s 11 House seats.
“This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall,” Obama said in the video. Obama previously endorsed a successful redistricting effort in California last year that could help Democrats flip as many as five Republican-controlled seats.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who took office in January, also urged voters Thursday to back the amendment vote. “Virginians have the opportunity to take action in response to this extraordinary moment in history,” she said in a statement. “That’s why, as a Virginia voter, I’m voting in favor of this amendment.”
Currently, the state’s constitution vests a bipartisan commission with the power to draw maps. The amendment before voters allows the state legislature to put in place a new map but would revert to the commission process after the 2030 Census.
Brian Cannon sits on the advisory board of No Gerrymandering Virginia – one of the groups opposed to changing the state’s constitution – and worked on the earlier effort to create a bipartisan map-drawing commission.
On Thursday, he criticized Obama’s decision to become involved in the current fight, saying the former president did not engage in the process to establish the commission in the first place. “Barack Obama has never been for fair maps in Virginia,” Cannon said. “He didn’t help us in 2020, and he’s clearly not for them now.”
Cannon argued the current map is fair. Virginia is represented in the US House by six Democrats and five Republicans.
“If Democrats can run good candidates and good campaigns, they can win elections,” he said. “Democrats don’t have to cheat to win.”
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