Virginia Democrats are set to join the redistricting war. Their candidate for governor is staying out of it

By Eva McKend, CNN

(CNN) — Democrats in Virginia’s legislature are expected on Monday to launch a complex redistricting push to counter Republican-led efforts around the country, according to two Democratic lawmakers familiar with the still-private plans.

The party’s nominee for Virginia governor isn’t talking much about it.

Abigail Spanberger’s campaign has declined to comment on whether she supports an effort to create potentially two or three more friendly districts for Democrats. That’s even as the push adds a late dose of uncertainty to the governor’s race, with Republicans crying foul about the impact on the last full week before the November 4 election.

Spanberger’s Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, will have to leave the campaign trail to preside over the state Senate. And state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, is part of the party’s 21-19 majority.

Earle-Sears blasted the Democrats’ effort at a weekend campaign event hosted by the Conservative Political Action Conference Latino coalition.

“That’s not what we do here,” she said. “We need to be really making the case to all of the voters of Virginia.”

Jared Leopold, a strategist who works with Democrats across Virginia, saod President Donald Trump’s national push to redraw US House maps in his favor ahead of the midterms requires swift Democratic action. In Leopold’s view, statewide Democrats should lean into having another mechanism to fight back against the administration.

“This is about keeping options on the table for redistricting, and we’ve seen that Donald Trump will shift things at any moment, and passing this now will allow Democrats to have options in 2026 to balance out what’s happening nationally,” he said.

Spanberger told WJLA-TV in August that she had “no plans” to pursue redistricting in Virginia.

“Virginia by constitutional amendment has a new redistricting effort that was put in place and first utilized in the 2021 redistricting,” she said then. “I’ve been watching with interest what other states are doing, but I have no plans to redistrict Virginia.”

Virginia Democrats hold six of the state’s 11 US House seats. Since Spanberger’s comments, Missouri and North Carolina have joined Texas in redrawing their maps. A gain of even one or two seats in Virginia could be critical to Democrats’ chances of winning the House next year.

“Policy-wise, I think everybody wants it,” said one Democratic operative working on the statewide races. “But is this what we want the closing argument to be on the campaign?”

Virginia leaders still haven’t spoken publicly on their plans

Virginia Democratic leaders haven’t explicitly said they are calling back lawmakers on Monday to discuss redistricting. Their plans, first reported by the Virginia Scope newsletter, were confirmed to CNN by two sources familiar with the matter discussing internal deliberations.

“The House will meet to consider matters properly before the ongoing 2024 Special Session I and any related business laid before the body in accordance with the Constitution,” reads a letter sent by Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott.

To bypass the nonpartisan commission that governs the drawing of US House lines in the state, Virginia lawmakers have to take the issue to voters.

The Virginia House and Senate, both of which have narrow Democratic majorities, would have to pass a constitutional amendment in the special session and again in a new session after the November 4 election. It would then go on a ballot next year.

Alex Keena, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, described the maneuvers as “super lengthy and unrealistic.”

“We’re talking like a yearslong process of two separate general assemblies approving it, and then the voters approving it. That’s not an easy or quick thing,” Keena said.

In a virtual news conference Thursday, state House GOP leader Terry Kilgore said he was told by reliable sources that redistricting is the intended purpose of the session resuming this week.

“Amending the Constitution is a very serious ordeal. It’s a very serious step,” Kilgore said.

Spanberger is well ahead of Earle-Sears in public polling

Spanberger leads Earle-Sears among likely voters, 54% to 42%, in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, according to the most recent Washington Post-Schar School poll.

But the survey did find movement in the state attorney general’s race, where Republican Jason Miyares and Democrat Jay Jones are tied at 46%, a shift from last month, when Jones held a 6-point edge before revelations about violent text messages he sent in 2022.

Republicans such as conservative radio host John Fredericks said Earle-Sears should lean into the redistricting effort with a news conference in Richmond on the first day of the special session.

“If you want unfiltered, raw power grabs that cost money that have nothing to do with making life better for Virginians, here it is,” said Fredericks, who argued Virginia Democrats’ effort won’t land the same way as in California, where voters go to the polls next month to vote on temporarily redrawing the state’s maps at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s behest.

Meanwhile, national Democrats are cheering the move.

“We are clear-eyed that Democrats cannot unilaterally disarm across the country and must pursue every available tool to counter Republicans’ desperate attempts to steal the midterms,” Courtney Rice, the communications director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement.

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