Miyares Rebukes Virginia Democrats Over Last-Minute Redistricting

With Election Day a week away in Virginia, Democrats have called a last-minute special session to try to take back control of redistricting, and Attorney General Jason Miyares says that effort conflicts with the ongoing election process and Virginia law.

This special session was convened by the Democratic majority in the General Assembly to undo the bipartisan redistricting commission voters approved in 2020. The move is aimed at reclaiming the power to draw congressional maps and, conveniently for Democrats, it sidelines Republican officials from campaigning while the legislature is in session. That combination makes this more than a routine procedural fight — it is an election-timing maneuver with tangible political consequences.

Voters approved the amendment creating a bipartisan redistricting commission in 2020, removing that authority from the General Assembly. Democrats now argue they can pass a new amendment to reverse the change, but the timing is the sticking point. The state constitution says a new amendment must be in place before “the next general election,” and Miyares contends the current election counts as that next general election because early voting opened weeks ago.

The big here is whether the November 4 election day can be treated as the cutoff point when the election process already began on September 19. Miyares’ office points out that Virginia’s election process spans 45 days under current law, so the election is not a single event confined to a single day. With hundreds of thousands of Virginians already having cast ballots, Miyares argues that the election is underway and therefore the legislature cannot rewrite the constitution in the middle of that ongoing process.

That argument is spelled out in a new legal opinion issued by the Attorney General’s office this week, addressing questions raised by House Republican leadership. The opinion stresses that the November 4 culmination of voting is part of a 45-day process and that the completion of those polls is the end of the current election, not the start of the next one. If the court accepts that reading, any last-minute constitutional change could be ruled invalid for failing to meet the timing requirement.

From Miyares’ opinion: 

A regular session of the General Assembly will commence January 14, 2026. Although November 4, 2025 is an election day in the Commonwealth it, standing alone, does not constitute the “next general election” under Article XII, § 1. Under current Virginia law, the election voting process in Virginia spans 45 days. The closing of the polls on November 4, 2025 will be the culmination of the ongoing election process, which commenced September 19, 2025. 

The attorney general concluded, “Accordingly, because a general election of delegates is already underway, the November 4th culmination of this 2025 election cannot be deemed to be the ‘next general election.’ It is the current general election.” That plain reading matters because it protects the public from a mid-election constitutional rewrite designed to shift political power. It also protects candidates who would be barred from fundraising and campaigning during a legislative session convened for that express purpose.

House Republican Leader Terry Kilgore welcomed the opinion and emphasized the obvious: hundreds of thousands of Virginians have already voted, and the 45-day early voting window is active. Kilgore said this last-minute rush to amend the constitution “flies in the face of Virginia’s Constitution and code mandated public notice requirements.” That position frames the Democrats’ action as a procedural end-run rather than a legitimate, transparent legislative process.

Democrats are pushing this session because they see a chance to flip two or three congressional seats before the maps are set for the next cycle. What’s at stake is straightforward power: who draws districts, who gets to campaign freely, and whether voters’ choices are respected. Conservatives are warning this is a raw political grab timed to tip the scales in an election where many ballots are already cast.

Legal battles are likely to follow, and the courts may have to sort out the constitutional timing issue. In the meantime, the Miyares opinion gives Republicans a clear legal and practical argument against allowing a constitutional undoing to proceed while voting is underway. The debate is no longer just about maps. It is about whether the rules of the game can be changed while the game is in progress, and whether voters will be left out of that decision.

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.