US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies (D-NY) speaks to reporters while walking to his office after a press conference at the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC on March 27, 2026.
Samuel Coram getty images
A Virginia Circuit Court judge issued an order Wednesday blocking the results of a congressional redistricting referendum that could give Democrats four additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, in a statement, vowed to fight the order issued by Republican-appointed Judge Jack Hurley.
“My office will immediately file an appeal with the Court of Appeals,” Jones said.
The attorney general said, “As I said last night, the voters of Virginia have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the people’s vote.” “We look forward to defending the results of last night’s election in court.”
Earlier on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries struck a defiant tone following Democrats’ victory in the partisan gerrymandering battle ahead of the November midterm elections in Virginia.
“House Democrats will continue to fight fight after fight on behalf of the American people,” D-N.Y. Jeffries said in apparent reference to a news conference at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar Best Picture Winner.
Jeffries continued, “Last night was a big win for the people of Virginia. A big win for America. And a big win for democracy. (President) Donald Trump and the Republicans started this horrific war, and we made it clear as Democrats that we are going to end it.” “We will not let Donald Trump rig the midterm elections.”
The Virginia redistricting referendum passed by three percentage points and could give Democrats four U.S. House seats this year. The measure allows new district lines to be temporarily adopted but would return control of redistricting to an independent commission in 2031.
The Trump administration argued that the ballot initiative was not a clear victory for Democrats.
“This is a state with a 15-point lead in November 2025 democrat for governor And about eight points for this Attorney GeneralWhite House deputy chief of staff and Trump political adviser James Blair said Wednesday during an appearance on CNN’s “Inside Politics with Dana Bash.” “Last night it was a three-point race. It’s really a three-point overshoot trump 2024 historic performance In Virginia.”
Blair said, “So just as a baseline, for all the Democrats gathered this morning, if the Republicans perform anywhere near as average as they did last night in Virginia, we not only add seats in the Senate, but we add seats in the House and we have a historic midterm.”
Victory could help Democrats take the US House
But the results in Virginia will likely be a boon for the Democratic Party, which was already favored to win the House majority this November. It also effectively negates the lead that Republicans had earned as a result of their own redistricting efforts.
“Virginia voters have spoken, and tonight they approved a temporary measure to push back against a president who claims he ‘deserves’ more Republican seats in Congress,” Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who campaigned in support of the measure, said in a statement late Tuesday after the results were announced. “Virginians saw other states moving forward with those demands without voter input – and we refused to stand by. We responded the right way: at the ballot box.
Democrats have historically opposed partisan gerrymandering, but took an aggressive stance on the issue after Trump and Republicans, fearing losing control of the House in the next Congress, launched their own redistricting efforts.
Trump last summer Texas Republicans began urging Redistricting mid-decade. States typically redraw House district lines following the national census every 10 years.
Texas was the first state to redistrict for 2026
The GOP-led Texas legislature heeded the president’s warning and adopted maps that were possible Net Republicans hold five seats. Republicans in legislatures other states States – including Ohio, North Carolina and Missouri – followed suit. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called a special session The GOP-led state legislature will redraw its congressional districts later this month.
In response, Democrats in some states turned to voters to change the maps they control. Californians voted in favor of it in November a ballot initiative The plan is to give Democrats five additional House seats this fall.
Trump, in A satya social post on wednesdaycalled the Virginia vote a “rigged election” and claimed that the language of the referendum was misleading. “As everyone knows, I’m an exceptionally talented person, and I didn’t even know what they were talking about in the referendum, and neither did they!” Trump posted.
Supporters of the Virginia effort framed it as a necessary evil to fight against the anti-democratic impulses of the Trump administration, but it puts Democrats in an awkward position after taking a decidedly anti-partisan stance in recent years.
Democrats opposed gerrymandering
Democrats have on several occasions introduced legislation that would try to prevent partisan gerrymandering by requiring independent commissions to redrawn congressional districts. In 2021, the Democrats made For public act, That included anti-gerrymandering provisions, his top legislative priority.
Jeffries on Wednesday tried to draw a distinction between Democrats’ and Republicans’ approaches to the redistricting issue.
The Democratic leader said the party decided to respond to Republican redistricting “in a way consistent with our values.”
“Our response has been forceful, temporary and has been approved by voters at all times in direct response to what the MAGA extremists have done,” Jefferies said. “There’s a big difference between how we’ve approached this effort and Republicans who are going into state legislatures in the dead of night, passing maps and then being afraid to present those maps to the people in those states.”