LEESBURG, Va. â Virginians head to the polls on Tuesday to vote on a congressional redistricting referendum that, if passed, could give Democrats a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House majority in this year’s midterm elections.
If the ballot measure is successful, it would give the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature â rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission â temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in , up from their current 6-5 edge.
That would give the Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms as the party tries to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.
“It’s the most partisan map in American,” former Republican Gov. told supporters at his final campaign stop on the eve of the election in this northern Virginia town on the far end of Washington, DC’s suburbs.
Pointing to the Democrats pushing new maps, Youngkin charged, “What they are doing is immoral.”
Teaming up with Youngkin to crisscross the state in leading the GOP opposition to the ballot initiative was former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who told the crowd the Democrats’ map is one that “you draw when youre drunk with power.”
Speaking with Fox News Digital ahead of their final election eve rally, Miyares charged that Democrats want to take away the voices of millions of Virginians and gerrymander the state.
Youngkin, pointing to the duo’s relentless campaigning in recent weeks, said “what were hearing over and over and over again is Virginians want fair maps. And what the yes vote represents are unfair maps.”
And the two Republicans reiterated their charge that the referendum was an “unconstitutional power grab” by the Democratic Gov. and the Democrats who control the state legislature.
As Youngkin and Miyares were speaking in Leesburg, President took to the airwaves on a popular Virginia-based conservative talk show and later teamed up with House Speaker Mike Johnson to urge voters to defeat the referendum.
Pointing to congressional Democrats, Trump warned that “if they get these additional seats, they’re going to be making changes at the federal level.”
Democrats counter that the redrawing of the maps is a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented by Republicans in other states at Trump’s urging.
“By voting yes, you have the chance to do something important â not just for the Commonwealth, but for our entire country,” former President Barack Obama said in a video released Friday on the eve of the final day of early voting. “By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.”
“By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we’re counting on you,” the former president added.
The video by Obama was the former president’s latest effort tied to the referendum. He has previously appeared in ads released by Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-aligned group working to pass the ballot initiative.
But Virginians for Fair Maps, the leading Republican-aligned group opposing redistricting, used past comments by Obama against political gerrymandering in its ads opposing the referendum.
“Because of things like political gerrymandering, our parties have moved further and further apart, and its harder and harder to find common ground,” the former president said in an old clip showcased in the spot.
Republicans are also pointing to comments from Democratic Sen. a former Virginia governor and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, who acknowledged this past weekend in a Fox News Sunday interview that the new maps don’t represent Virginia’s partisan breakdown.
“Ninety percent of Virginians are not Democrats, that’s true,” Kaine s
