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A Virginia judge ruled on Tuesday that a proposed constitutional amendment allowing Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional districts was illegal.
The ruling is a setback for Democrats in the redistricting battle as they attempt to regain the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.
🚨 JUST IN: In a VICTORY, a Virginia court just STRUCK DOWN any Democrat efforts to gerrymander the state’s Congressional map for more blue seats during the 2026 election
If anything is passed, it must take effect AFTER the 2027 election
GREAT! Dems will likely appeal this,… pic.twitter.com/1WiVIoW0O3
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 27, 2026
The Guardian explained further:
Tazewell circuit court judge Jack Hurley Jr struck down the legislature’s actions on three grounds, including finding that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.
His order also said Democrats failed to approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and did not to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law.
As a result, he said, the amendment was invalid and void.
Don Scott, the Virginia house speaker , who was listed in Republicans’ lawsuit over the resolution, said Democrats would appeal the ruling.
“Nothing that happened today will dissuade us from continuing to move forward and put this matter directly to the voters,” Scott said in a joint statement with other state Democratic leaders.
Virginians for Fair Elections, a campaign that supports the redistricting resolution, accused conservatives of filing their lawsuit in a known GOP-friendly jurisdiction, saying: “Republicans court-shopped for a ruling because litigation and misinformation are the only tools they have left.”
Virginia’s congressional delegation currently consists of six Democrats and five Republicans in the House of Representatives.
Some believe Democrat state lawmakers could redraw the congressional map to flip three seats from red to blue, creating a 9-2 advantage.
State Democrat Lawmakers Advance Congressional Redistricting Plan
Meanwhile, Maryland is attempting to press forward with a redistricting plan that would likely eliminate the state’s only GOP-controlled House seat.
More from the Associated Press:
Moore, a Democrat who is the nation’s only serving Black governor, said the state needed to act to counter what he called “political redlining” by Trump in other states at the cost of Black representation in Congress.
He compared Trump’s push for GOP-friendly redistricting to discriminatory housing practices, saying the president and his allies “are doing everything in their power to silence the voices and trying to eliminate Black leadership — elected leadership — all over this country.”
“So no, I will not sit quietly,” Moore testified before a Maryland House committee that was expected to advance the map later Tuesday. “And the audacity of those who are telling me to do so shows that they have no understanding of the journey of so many who came before us.”
Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 in Maryland and already hold a 7-1 advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation, with Rep. Andy Harris the lone GOP representative.
Moore’s push for mid-decade redistricting has run into opposition by a key fellow Democrat: state Senate President Bill Ferguson, of Baltimore, who says it could backfire and potentially cost a Democratic seat.
Ferguson pointed out that a map adopted in 2021 that would have made it easier to flip Harris’ seat was ruled unconstitutional by a judge who called it “a product of extreme partisan gerrymandering.” Maryland passed another map in 2022, and a legal fight was dropped.