{"id":600092,"date":"2026-04-22T18:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600092\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:47:08","slug":"democrats-won-the-redistricting-fight-in-virginia-was-trumps-gerrymandering-war-all-for-nothing-us-midterm-elections-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600092\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats won the redistricting fight in Virginia. Was Trump\u2019s gerrymandering war all for nothing? | US midterm elections 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Months into his second term, Donald Trump<\/a> wagered that he could beat the historic trend of the party in power losing seats in midterm elections if Republican-led states redrew congressional maps to sweep Democrats<\/a> out of office.<\/p>\n

The gamble is looking to be a bust, or at best a draw, for the president, after Democrats fought back with their own redistricting efforts, the latest of which came to fruition in Virginia<\/a> on Tuesday, when voters approved a plan that could remove all but one of the five Republicans<\/a> in its current House of Representatives delegation.<\/p>\n

Far from defying history, Trump now seems set to succumb to it, as the Democratic counteroffensive coupled with voter dissatisfaction towards the president\u2019s own policies sets the stage for Republicans<\/a> to suffer potentially brutal losses in November\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats did not step back. We fought back. When they go low, we hit back hard,\u201d the top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries<\/a>, said in a statement that vowed \u201cmaximum warfare, everywhere, all the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

The redistricting war<\/a> began last year, when red states Texas<\/a>, Missouri<\/a> and North Carolina<\/a> responded to Trump\u2019s call by redrawing their maps to make as many as seven Democratic-held seats unwinnable for that party. But the plan went awry in the months that followed, when Indiana senate Republicans refused to join<\/a> in the gerrymandering campaign, a bipartisan commission in Ohio enacted new maps that put Democratic incumbents in less peril than expected and a court ruling boosted the minority\u2019s chances of winning a seat in Utah<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The biggest setback came in November, when California voters approved<\/a> maps that could cost Republicans five House seats, the same number Texas Republicans hoped to win with their redistricting. In Virginia, Democrat Abigail Spanberger was elected governor<\/a>, setting up a redistricting referendum that voters approved on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Its margin of victory was a small three percentage points, much less than the 15% romp by which Spanberger was elected four months earlier, but no matter \u2013 when the new Congress begins next year, Virginia\u2019s congressional delegation is poised to consist of 10 Democrats<\/a> and one Republican, as compared with its current split of six Democrats and five Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis goes beyond Virginia<\/a>, and what started in Texas didn\u2019t stay in Texas, and what started here will not stay here either,\u201d said the state senate president pro tempore, L Louise Lucas, a key figure in getting the maps approved. \u201cVirginia sent a message: if you try to rig the system, we fight back. If you try to take powers from voters, we will take it right back.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may well be that the national redistricting push winds up being a wash, or perhaps even to Democrats\u2019 advantage. It\u2019s not the only way that political trends are breaking in the party\u2019s favor \u2013 their candidates continue to triumph<\/a> in special elections, and even when they lose, there are signs<\/a> that demographics that backed Trump in 2024 have swung towards Democrats.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s approval ratings are underwater<\/a>, including on key issues like the economy, while Democrats are ahead<\/a> on the generic ballot, which serves as an indicator of pre-midterm sentiment.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s supreme court is still considering a legal challenge to its referendum, and could potentially issue a ruling invalidating the vote. Even if the previous maps – which were drawn under a process voters approved six years ago to prevent partisan gerrymandering \u2013 wind up being used in November, Democrats would still have a shot at winning perhaps two swing districts in the state.<\/p>\n

And there are still skirmishes to settle in the redistricting tit-for-tat. Next week, Florida\u2019s legislature will convene for a special session called by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, to consider congressional map tweaks that could make it harder for Democrats to hold on to as many as three seats.<\/p>\n

But with the winds apparently blowing in his party\u2019s direction, at a press conference on Wednesday Jeffries had a warning for Florida Republicans: \u201cF around and find out.\u201d He predicted that Texas<\/a> Republicans may only be able to claim, at most, three Democratic-held seats under their new maps, and Florida\u2019s redistricting could backfire entirely by making GOP incumbents vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they go down the road of a DeSantis dummymander, the Florida Republicans are going to find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans, who are on the run right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut go ahead, and make our day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Months into his second term, Donald Trump wagered that he could beat the historic trend of the party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-600092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}