'Not a done deal': Democrats start to sweat over Virginia's redistricting referendum

After putting an aggressive redraw of the state’s congressional map before voters, some Virginia Democrats are growing uneasy about its prospects for passage one month out from the special election

After putting an aggressive redraw of the state’s congressional map before voters, some Virginia Democrats are growing uneasy about its prospects for passage one month out from the special election.

Virginia Democrats entered 2026 riding a wave of momentum, comfortably flipping the governorship and expanding their majority in the state House in last fall’s elections. And heading into the April contest, they hold massive fundraising and ad spending advantages.

But recently, the realities of waging a unique campaign in a state that isn’t nearly as Democratic as California, where voters approved a redrawn map through a similar process last year, have begun to set in.

Some supporters of the Virginia referendum acknowledge the challenge of convincing voters to back a gerrymandered map when Democrats, who several years ago backed the formation of the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission, have criticized Republicans for similar moves.

Virginia voters are also not accustomed to going to the polls in April, when Democrats scheduled the special election, making turnout particularly unpredictable.