On Tuesday, February 10, freshman Del. Lily Franklin (D-Montgomery Co.) and Del. Salam “Sam” Rasoul (D-Roanoke City) voted for HB 29, which passed the House of Delegates with a lopsided 63-35 margin.
HB 29 is the bill to approve new maps for Virginia’s eleven Congressional districts for the upcoming elections. Cardinal News has called the new lines the “most aggressive gerrymander of any other State.” In a recent editorial, the historically Democrat-leaning Washington Post also roundly criticized the Democrats’ redistricting scheme.
Democrats in the General Assembly counter that they must redraw Virginia’s congressional lines to offset GOP gerrymandering in Texas and elsewhere.
Control of the US House of Representatives currently gives the Republicans a wafer-thin margin. Democrats have claimed that, if they can retake the majority after the November 2026 midterms, they will make impeaching President Trump a top priority.
You can read more about the controversial new district lines here.
As can be seen from the above maps, the top map shows the state’s current 11 Congressional Districts. The two in western Virginia are solidly Republican, with three GOP-leaning ones, and the remaining six are Democrat-held.
The lower map, in contrast, shows the proposed districts that Delegates Franklin and Rasoul voted to approve on Feb. 10. In this scheme, by heavily gerrymandering the new 6th District and lumping Virginia Tech, Roanoke City, UVA, and JMU together, they put more left-leaning voters into one new district to make the 6th Democrat-leaning and concentrate even more Republicans into the 9th District.
These maps were posted to the Twitter/X account of Del. Scott Wyatt (R-Hanover/New Kent).
Based on recent statewide elections, Republicans account for around 47-48% of the electorate. Here in Western Virginia, those numbers are far higher. As recently as one month ago, all three statewide offices were held by Republicans.
However, if the new Democrat maps actually go into effect and the new lines indeed create a 10:1 ratio, then that means Republicans will hold only 9% of Virginia’s Congressional seats.
The lopsided 10:1 ratio was achieved by Democrats dividing solidly blue, densely populated Fairfax County among five Congressional districts, with each district extending like long tentacles deep into other parts of the Commonwealth that are hours away from and culturally unrelated to Northern Virginia.
Rasoul and Franklin are the only Democrats in the House of Delegates from our region. All Republicans from the area voted no. They include Delegates Joe McNamara (Salem/Roanoke), Terry Austin (Botetourt), Will Davis (Franklin), and Eric Zehr (Bedford).
If approved by the whole General Assembly and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), then voters will have the final say with a special election that is to end in April. In that election, a YES vote is to approve the proposed new maps, while a NO vote is to oppose.
– Scott Dreyer
