Virginians will decide whether the state will redraw its congressional voting map. A win would give Democrats an edge in four more seats, meaning they could hold 10 of Virginia’s 11 seats in Congress.
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Next Tuesday, voters in Virginia could have one of the final words in the redistricting fight that President Trump kicked off all over the country last July. A new map in that state could mean a possible gain of four seats for Democrats in the U.S. House. VPM’s Jahd Khalil traveled around Virginia to hear what people are thinking about a potential reshuffling of their congressional map.
JAHD KHALIL, BYLINE: Picture a lobster with a blue tail and red claws. That’s the shape of one of the most talked about districts in Virginia Democrats’ plan to counter a gerrymandering push by President Trump with their own gerrymanderer. The lobster’s tail is in deep blue northern Virginia – the suburbs of Washington, D.C. As the crustacean reaches southwest, its right front leg is slung over the Republican strongholds of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley. Its claw is in Augusta County.
JOHN WISE: I can’t think of anybody living in D.C. making plans for Rockingham and Augusta County.
KHALIL: John Wise is a retired veterinarian. But he tells me he still raises cattle. He’s got the cowboy hat to match.
WISE: The No. 1 and No. 2 leading agricultural counties in the whole state.
KHALIL: He and about 300 other people are rallying against the redistricting proposal in a hanger in Harrisonburg used to restore old airplanes. On one side of the crowd is President Eisenhower’s Air Force One. On the other, a billboard displays a map showing the new proposed districts for Virginia. Ten would lean Democratic if voters approve redistricting Tuesday. Right now, Democrats hold six of 11 seats.
WISE: We need to nip this thing in the bud and not let it get any wider spread. Keep the issues in the valley that pertain to the valley, not northern Virginia.
KHALIL: East of the lobster district, Jane Lewis (ph) lives in New Kent County. It’s a red county on the Virginia Peninsula. She says she isn’t upset about being represented by someone in northern Virginia. She’s out voting early with her husband.
JANE LEWIS: We are probably more of an anomaly in this area because we’re definitely blue voters.
KHALIL: She said her vote is motivated by Trump.
LEWIS: I was never on the fence about it. Trump said we deserve those seats. Well, I don’t like that word deserve.
KHALIL: Back in August, Trump said Republicans were entitled to five more congressional seats in Texas. In a lot of ways, this election is a referendum on Trump. Democratic voters have said over and over again that they’re not comfortable with gerrymandering, but they’ve been forced into this position after Trump started the nationwide redistricting push, something states usually just do at the start of each decade. And they want something to pump the brakes on the president’s policies.
LEWIS: If we can change the balance of power in Congress, all of – not all – some of his wild stuff can be blocked and return to a more humanitarian view of our country and the world.
KHALIL: Democrats won in a landslide in the 2025 gubernatorial election. Generally, though, Virginia’s still pretty swingy, and the redistricting vote seems to be a toss-up.
Back in the proposed lobster district, Kevin Leonard is talking to the folks manning the Republican and Democratic booths before he heads in to vote. He says he’s undecided.
KEVIN LEONARD: I don’t know. I really don’t know. It’s hard to say – we can tell it’s wrong to draw a map this way and say, yeah, this looks good. But is there an argument for, hey, let’s do this anyway? I don’t know. I think that’s what everyone’s on the fence about.
KHALIL: Time is running out for new states to jump into the redistricting fight ahead of the November elections. Voters in Virginia and Republican lawmakers in Florida could have the final say on redistricting. That is, if the sunshine state sticks to its plan to redistrict later this month to help Republicans in the final push before the midterms. For NPR News, I’m Jahd Khalil in Richmond, Virginia.
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