From the EPEC Team Newsletter:
A district court judge in Tazewell County has ruled that Virginia Democrats’ redistricting referendum flouted proper notice statutes and the constitution, throwing a wrench into their rush to redistrict congressional maps before the midterms.
Judge Jack Hurley Jr. of Tazewell County Circuit Court’s ruling enjoins the Special Election slated for April 21.
The ruling said Democrats flouted the rules, statutes, and the Constitution.
For example, the judge took issue with the so-called “intervening vote” requirement for redistricting, which the Democrat majority held in the assembly during October — in the middle of early voting.
“For this Court to find that the election was only on November 4, 2025, those one million Virginia voters would be completely disenfranchised,” he wrote.
VA Assembly Democrats had also apparently tried to change a 1971-era, 90-day notification statute to claim, ex post facto, that they have authority now.
The judge wasn’t buying it, saying they “woefully argued the posting could occur three (3) months prior to the 2027 election and still comply with the statute even if the proposed Constitutional Amendment was voted on in the Spring of 2026.”
The wording of the notification statute and requirements for public notice of amendments to the Constitution may be the most difficult for Democrats to overcome on appeal:
In a defiant statement by House Speaker Don Scott, Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Mamie Locke, House Democratic Caucus Chair Kathy Tran, they vowed to press on:
“Nothing that happened today will dissuade us from continuing to move forward and put this matter directly to the voters. Republicans who can’t win at the ballot box are abusing the legal process in an attempt to sow confusion and block Virginians from voting. We will be appealing this ruling immediately and we expect to prevail. This was court-shopping, plain and simple. We’re prepared for the next step, and voters – not politicians – will have the final say.”
Republican state Sen. Ryan McDougle, a plaintiff in the case, House Del. Terry Kilgore, and former U.S. House member Eric Cantor, who co-chairs the group Virginians for Fair Maps, were exultant.
The ruling is “a decisive victory for the rule of law and Virginia voters,” they said.
Former Del. Tim Anderson noted the ruling only applies to the locality, but lays out a legal principle the Democrats will have to overcome on appeal.
National Redistricting Updates
The AP tallied up the redistricting battles in other states at the national level ahead of the midterm elections. The math so far: Republicans are ahead by nine potential extra seats “they believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.”
Democrats see six more seats they think they can re-map across California and Utah, where a judge struck down Republicans’ congressional map that gives them one more seat (that one is under appeal). Plus, “Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to call a special session on redistricting in April.”
Virginia was seen as the place to make up Democrats’ three-seat margin in the redistricting math so far. Now, a judge has issued a permanent injunction that sets the stage for litigation that could drag on for months, beyond the midterms. #
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