Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) on Friday condemned the Supreme Court’s refusal to reinstate a Virginia high court that struck down new voter-approved congressional maps.
Spanberger angrily said on the social platform
Justices refused to block a split ruling by Virginia’s Supreme Court that Democrats did not follow proper procedures in sending a redistricting proposal to voters. Virginia Democrats filed an emergency appeal Monday, insisting that the state’s Supreme Court’s action last week to block the map amounted to “judicial contempt.”
No dissent was found in the judge’s decision.
The Virginia Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision eliminated Democrats’ four House chances in the Old Dominion in the midterm elections. That gives Republicans a chance to pick up six or seven seats they might otherwise lose, according to a Cook Political Report analysis.
Spanberger later shared an ActBlue link on her personal X profile for voters to donate to Democratic congressional campaigns in Virginia.
The governor said Thursday that Virginia will continue to use the old congressional map, citing May 12 as the deadline for any changes, WTOP reported.
The ruling shocked many Virginia Democrats because it was one of the party’s last attempts to redraw congressional maps before the midterm elections to give itself a better chance of wresting control of the House from Republicans. President Trump last year directed Republican-controlled states to redraw their maps in an effort to preserve Republican control of Congress.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones (D) called the Supreme Court’s response “another deeply disturbing example of the ongoing assault on voting rights and the rule of law by Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts across the country.” He added in an X post that the Virginia Supreme Court’s “deeply flawed” ruling remains in place.
Other Virginia Democrats, including Rep. Suhas Subramaniam and state Sen. Elizabeth Guzman, also lambasted the Supreme Court for rejecting the new maps. Subramaniam said he would make sure “Virginians remember this November” before the vote.
Guzman is one of several Democratic candidates who have suspended their campaigns due to the results of the redistricting vote. She said in a statement that she was disappointed but hoped the other candidates would “fight and contribute to a Virginia that works for everyone.”
Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., said on Sunday that Democrats could still consider “all options” to respond to the state high court’s ruling. She noted that the state Legislature will consider a constitutional amendment to implement the new maps, but her focus was on the “political fight.”
“My focus is on making sure that we get as many seats as possible in Virginia this November, no matter what the final maps look like, and that we fight against what the Jim Crow South is doing to dilute Black voters and eliminate Black representation so that they can get into a Republican Congress because they know that the only way they can win is not on the merit of their ideas and actions, but by manipulating those maps,” she told NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
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