Virginia Democratic lawmakers are planning an effort to redraw their congressional maps in an attempt to boost their party ahead of next year’s midterm elections, adding an unexpected state to the country’s ongoing redistricting arms race.
In a letter Thursday afternoon to colleagues, Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat, announced that the chamber will reopen an existing special legislative session next Monday afternoon. State lawmakers are expected to use the session start the effort to take up new maps.
Under Virginia statute, only the governor — currently Republican Glenn Youngkin — can convene a special session. But Scott’s letter makes clear that state Democrats, who control narrow majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature, are utilizing a loophole in the statute by re-opening a special legislative session that was convened in May 2024 but never technically concluded.
“The House will meet to consider matters properly before the ongoing 2024 Special Session I any any related business laid before the body, in accordance with the Constitution, statutes, as the Rules of the House,” Scott said in his statement.
Virginia Democrats’ plans to return to the state Capitol in Richmond comes after Republicans in Texas, Missouri and, as of Wednesday, North Carolina have enacted new maps at President Donald Trump’s urging designed to help the GOP pick up U.S. House seats in the 2026 elections.
Mandara Meyers, the executive director of The States Project, a political group that has discussed the issue with Virginia Democratic leaders, confirmed to NBC News the plan to take up new maps that were first reported by The New York Times.
“After what happened in North Carolina, and states across the country, in taking this procedural step, I believe they are keeping options on the table to respond to extreme rightwing gerrymandering next year,” Meyers said in a statement.
Scott Surovell, the majority leader of the state Senate, did not respond to a request for comment.
The move comes less than two weeks before Virginia’s statewide elections, which includes high-profile races for governor and attorney general. A spokesperson for Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears’ campaign slammed the Virginia Democrats’ plans.
“This is what panic looks like,” Earle-Sears campaign spokesperson Peyton Vogel said in a statement. “With just 12 days until Election Day, Abigail Spanberger and her Democrat allies have given up on talking to voters about real ideas and solutions.”
Virginia, where Democrats control six of 11 congressional districts, would be the second state where the party has taken up a mid-decade redistricting effort. In California, Democratic leaders called a Nov. 4 special election so voters can decide whether to approve a new congressional map that could net the party up to five additional seats.
Like California, Virginia has a redistricting commission written into the state Constitution, which Democratic lawmakers will need to circumvent to net more seats for their party in Congress.
An amendment to Virginia’s Constitution requires both chambers of the Legislature to approve a measure twice, with a general state House election in between. If Democrats are able to push a measure to bypass or eliminate the redistricting commission through before next month’s election, they could vote again on a proposed amendment at their next scheduled session in January and send it to the voters, without it ever needing Youngkin’s approval.
A spokesperson for Youngkin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Elsewhere, Trump has also pushed Republicans in states such as Kansas and Indiana to draw new maps to shore up the party’s narrow House majority.