The Washington Post editorial board accused Democrats of a gerrymandering “power grab” in Virginia with a scathing opinion on Tuesday.
Democrats scored a major victory Tuesday when Virginia voters narrowly passed a congressional redistricting referendum that could give the party a significant boost in the battle for the U.S. House of Representatives majority in this year’s midterm elections, according to the Associated Press.
The ballot measure gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.
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The Washington Post published a piece headlined, “Virginia plunges America deeper into the gerrymandering abyss,” that suggested the “redistricting scheme was always a power grab by Democrats.”
“For months, Democrats crafted the illusion that their plan to redistrict Virginia was about restoring ‘fairness.’ In a special election on Tuesday, most voters assented to that deception as a referendum to rewrite the state Constitution narrowly passed,” the editorial board wrote.
The piece explained that under a redrawn map, Democrats expect to control 10 of the 11 congressional seats next year. But in 2024, “almost 48 percent of Virginians voted for GOP candidates to represent them in Congress,” and the House delegation currently has six Democrats and five Republicans.
Kamala Harris continued the Democratic presidential winning streak there in 2024, but she defeated President Donald Trump by less than 6 percentage points, making the state more purple than deep-blue.
The board also took a shot at former President Barack Obama, who cheered the Democratic efforts to redo the map.
“Democratic leaders have long fancied themselves as champions of democracy and fair elections. But many of these politicians, including former president Barack Obama, made a more cynical calculation in Virginia,” the Post’s board wrote.
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“For them, disenfranchising Republican voters is the only way to counterbalance the desperate attempts by Republicans in other states to save their congressional majority,” it continued. “They’re right that the GOP started this fight by trying to pick up five House seats in Texas through gerrymandering, but they can spare us the false sanctimony about democratic norms going forward.”
The Post believes both parties contributed to “this mess,” and GOP redistricting in Texas and North Carolina “prompted California to pass a ballot referendum in November aimed at giving Democrats five more seats.”
“The parties should have called it even after that, but the escalation continued. Meanwhile, Democrats have been racking up big gains in off-year elections, including Virginia’s in November,” the editorial board wrote, noting that many Democrats “cast the referendum in partisan terms.”
Among them is Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who the Post suggested is looking to rework the map because he disagreed with “the people’s verdicts” when it comes to Republican candidates who Virginia voters kept in office.
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“The news will embolden Republicans in Florida to forge ahead with their own gerrymandering during a special session next week, continuing the race to the bottom,” the editorial board wrote.
“The redistricting referendum also ended the honeymoon for Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D). Mailers highlighted her past support for the 2020 ballot measure that she has now convinced voters to overturn. Looking partisan undercut her standing with moderate Republicans and independents,” the board added. “None of this was necessary.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
