Judge Deals Huge Blow To Democrat Attempt To Gerrymander Virginia

A state court rejected a Democratic mid-decade redistricting effort in Virginia on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the party’s chances of gerrymandering House seats there ahead of the midterms.

Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. cited four procedural errors in the proposed constitutional amendment to allow the redistricting. Some of the states’ Democratic lawmakers pushed for a lopsided gerrymander with as many as 10 seats favoring the party and only one seat favoring Republicans — a stark contrast to Virginia’s current House delegation of six Democrats and five Republicans.

An Oct. 31, 2025 vote on a procedural resolution to allow the redistricting measure to come before the state legislature passed “strictly along party lines,” the court noted. Four procedural moves were found to be in error according to the order, including the proposed Constitutional Amendment being “neither published by the Clerk of the House of Delegates, nor was it posted at the front door of every Courthouse.”

The court also cited an error in the timing of the vote, “some forty-three days after voting began in the 2025 General Election for the House of Delegates, wherein more than one million votes (approximately 40% of the 2025 Vote Totals) had already been cast.”

Recently-inaugurated Gov. Abigail Spanberger did not endorse nor condemn the redistricting effort during her campaign. Multiple outlets, including Politico and The Washington Post, have reported that Democrats are expected to appeal the decision.