The Virginia Supreme Court struck down the state's voter-approved congressional redistricting referendum in a 4-3 ruling, throwing out a Democratic-drawn map that would have given the party as many as 10 of Virginia's 11 U.S. House seats. The majority found lawmakers failed to approve the underlying constitutional amendment in two consecutive sessions as required and that initial passage came after early voting had begun, holding that "This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote."

The decision caps a six-month scramble of map-drawing across at least five states and, by PBS NewsHour's count, leaves Republicans with 14 additional GOP-leaning U.S. House seats against six new Democratic-leaning seats heading into the 2026 midterms, before pending action in Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina is counted. Republicans currently hold 217 House seats to Democrats' 212, with one independent and five vacancies.

What the ruling does

Virginia will run the 2026 election under the 2024 map, which produced a 6-5 Democratic delegation, rather than the new lines that passed with 51 percent support and would have temporarily moved redistricting authority from the state's nonpartisan commission to the Democrat-controlled legislature through 2030. The blocked map would have given Democrats a path to 10 of 11 seats, a four-seat swing the party had counted on to offset Republican gains elsewhere.

President Trump, who began pushing for mid-decade redraws last spring to protect the House majority, called the ruling a "Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia" on social media, describing the voided lines as "the Democrats' horrible gerrymander." His first-term majority flipped to Democrats in 2018, a reversal his political team has cited as the rationale for moving early on 2026 maps.

The five-state cascade

The Virginia decision lands two weeks after an April 29 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down Louisiana's majority-Black congressional district and tightened the standard for Voting Rights Act challenges, opening room for Republican-led states to redraw without the prior race-based constraints. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the state's May 16 House primaries to let legislators redraw, with Republicans targeting one or both Black-majority Democratic districts.

Tennessee's GOP-controlled legislature has adopted a new map that splits Memphis's Shelby County across three districts and eliminates the state's only Democratic-held seat, held by Rep. Steve Cohen. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed legislation adding four Republican-leaning seats by collapsing Democratic districts, expanding a delegation Republicans already lead 20-8. South Carolina's legislature convenes Monday on a map that could endanger Rep. Jim Clyburn, and Alabama lawmakers have advanced a redraw contingent on further court approval.

The counter on the Democratic side

California voters in November overwhelmingly approved Gov. Gavin Newsom's Proposition 50, allowing the Democratic legislature to add five blue-leaning seats — the bulk of the six Democratic-leaning seats in PBS's running tally. A Utah district judge has rejected one Republican map, and Indiana state senators defeated a Trump-backed redistricting bill in December, though the president then endorsed primary challengers who unseated five of those senators on Tuesday.

The Democratic response

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats are "exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision" and would "win in November so we can help rescue this nation from the extremism being unleashed by Donald Trump and Republicans." Former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote on X that "Today, the Virginia Supreme Court ignored the will of the people and overturned those democratically chosen maps," and accused the president of an effort to "rig the 2026 elections." Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the judges "chose to put partisan politics over the will of the people," and Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said the decision "silences the voices of millions of Virginians."

The court's majority confined its reasoning to the procedural defects in how the amendment was passed, not to the partisan content of the map, and Virginia's Republican governor and the state legislature's GOP minority have not detailed any further redraw for 2026. Harris vowed Democrats "will not give up."

South Carolina's legislature is the next test, with floor action expected Monday. Louisiana's rescheduled primary calendar and Alabama's contingent map are due before the end of the month.