On Tuesday, Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing the Democratic-controlled legislature to temporarily substitute a new congressional map that could flip as many as four U.S. House seats in the midterm elections. The vote was far closer than Democrats hoped, but the result should help offset the Republican gerrymanders engineered by Donald Trump in multiple red states, making it likely that Democrats will gain control of the House in November and break Trump’s trifecta hold on the federal government.

Unlike a similar gambit last November in California, Virginia’s redistricting initiative was never a slam dunk. Democrats gained a fragile hold on state government in 2025 by winning the governorship and flipping a legislative chamber, and had to race to enact the legislation that made the April 21 ballot measure possible. Newly elected Governor Abigail Spanberger, who was perceived as a centrist devoted to working across party lines, never seemed that enthusiastic about the gerrymander. And the Republicans opposing it cleverly........

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