politics
March 16, 2026
Abigail Spanberger’s redistricting fairness farce
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has pursued a maximalist partisan agenda since being sworn into office. She is making housing, healthcare, and energy all more expensive. But nothing she has done so far is as insulting as the language her party attached to its ballot referendum to disenfranchise millions of rural Republican voters this April.
TL;DR
- Virginia Democrats are attempting to change the state's congressional map via a ballot referendum.
- The proposed changes aim to replace a bipartisan map, drawn to reflect the 2024 presidential election results (52% Democratic, 46% Republican), with a lopsided 10-1 Democratic advantage.
- Critics argue the new map is undemocratic, cramming rural Republican voters into one district and extending Democratic suburban voters into rural areas.
- The ballot language is described as dishonest and partisan, using the term 'fairness' to justify replacing bipartisan maps with partisan ones.
- The article refutes the Democratic claim that this action is retaliation for Texas's map changes, pointing to prior gerrymandering in Democratic states and alleged Census Bureau errors favoring Democratic states.
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