The Republican National Committee has filed suit to block a Virginia referendum that would return congressional redistricting to lawmakers, arguing the ballot language and the move itself are unconstitutional and a blatant power grab by Democrats.
The RNC says the April referendum, approved to go forward by the state Supreme Court, seeks to strip voters of a nonpartisan process and hand redistricting back to a legislature the party controls. The complaint targets the wording of the ballot question and the timing of the referendum, saying emergency relief is needed to stop a defective proposal from reaching voters. This legal move follows earlier lower-court rulings and a months-long fight over who should draw maps in Virginia.
A Tazewell County judge previously ruled against the Democrats’ effort to overturn a 2020 constitutional amendment that removed redistricting power from lawmakers and placed it in a nonpartisan commission. The new amendment on the ballot would temporarily restore that power to the General Assembly, a change critics say would let Democrats lock in advantage for years. Under the map Democrats unveiled, several Republican-held seats would be at risk.
Democrats presented a new congressional plan that would shift several districts and could change the state’s current split from a 6-5 Democratic-Republican balance to a lop-sided 10-1 outcome. The RNC argues that outcome would erase voters’ protections and consolidate one-party control over how districts are drawn. Court challenges now focus both on substance and on whether the ballot language misleads voters about what the amendment actually does.
“Emergency relief is needed to prevent the transmission of a defective proposal for constitutional amendment to Virginia voters that violates the Commonwealth’s Constitution and an order of this Court,” the complaint states.
The RNC’s lawsuit zeroes in on the phrasing of the referendum question, which the committee says is overtly partisan and deceptive. The ballot asks whether the constitution should be amended to allow the General Assembly to “temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness,” language the RNC calls misleading. Their brief argues the word “fairness” hides the fact that the amendment would strip citizens of a nonpartisan redistricting process.
“Should the constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”
The RNC says that framing presents an obvious falsehood by claiming the proposed change “restores fairness” when it actually hands control to a partisan legislature. The suit contends voters are not being told that the amendment would return mapmaking power to lawmakers who currently control both chambers. That omission, the complaint says, infects the referendum with constitutional defects and warrants judicial intervention before ballots are printed.
RNC leadership has framed the move as defending the state constitution and protecting voters from a rushed power grab. They argue the scheme was already criticized by a court as an abuse of power and that pushing the referendum now is an attempt to bypass legal scrutiny. The complaint seeks to stop the referendum and to force clearer, nonpartisan language if the vote proceeds.
Virginia Democrats are trying to ram through an illegal redistricting scheme that a court has already called a blatant abuse of power.
Despite nearly half of Virginians supporting President Trump, Abigail Spanberger and Democrats are working to silence voters and lock in permanent political control. They’re ignoring the state Constitution, misleading voters, and rushing a sham election.
Democratic leaders respond that the referendum has been cleared to move forward and that the state Supreme Court will consider the lower-court ruling after the vote. They say the briefing process has already been requested and that voters should decide the issue at the ballot box. One prominent Democrat involved in drawing the plan defended the schedule and accused Republicans of shopping for sympathetic courts.
That Democrat, the speaker who helped craft the map, criticized the RNC’s filing and argued the effort is driven by fear of voters rather than by legal merit. He insisted the referendum was properly authorized to go forward and framed the lawsuit as another attempt to find a favorable venue after other challenges failed. The article preserves his exact words as part of the record:
Two incumbent Republican members of Congress who would be endangered by the proposed map have joined the RNC in the lawsuit, citing the same concerns about fairness and constitutional guarantees. Their participation makes clear the stakes for House control and for individual careers in Virginia politics. As court dates approach, both sides are preparing for legal arguments over procedure, language, and the broader question of who should decide how Virginians are represented.
https://x.com/TylerEnglander/status/2024243244956348803
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