Virginia is the new Illinois. 

The practice of drawing partisan districts is named after Elbridge Gerry, the 19th-century Massachusetts governor.

Even he might blush at the extreme gerrymander that Democrats in the commonwealth are pushing.

They want to go from a congressional delegation with six Democrats and five Republicans — broadly representing the partisan make-up of the state — to a 10-1 Democratic advantage. 

In other words, purplish Virginia would have a congressional delegation that, in percentage terms, would be more Democratic than that of Illinois; Virginia’s delegation would be 91% Democratic, the Land of Lincoln’s a mere 82%. 

Another way to look at it is that Virginia would be almost as purely Democratic as Massachusetts, which has a 9-0 split. 

Virginia is reliably Democratic in presidential elections (Kamala Harris won 51% of the vote), but isn’t Vermont (where Harris won nearly 64%) or California (58.5%). 

Prior to this year and the inauguration of new statewide officials, Virginia had a Republican governor, a Republican lieutenant governor and a Republican attorney general.

The GOP held a majority in the state House as of 2023 and today is only a step behind Democrats in the state Senate, 21-19.

Yet, the substantial portion of the statewide electorate — sometimes a majority — that votes Republican will be almost completely shut out of congressional seats. 

And, of course, this is being done in the name of “democracy.”

Virginia’s move, which still needs to clear hurdles, is a salvo in the mid-decade redistricting wars set off by President Donald Trump and the GOP, beginning in Texas.

It was foolhardy of the GOP to go down this road, but now Democrats in a relatively moderate state are creating a new standard for........

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