Governor called referendum after president urged GOP-led states to redraw maps to protect House majority
Voters in Virginia on Tuesday approved new congressional maps intended to boost Democrats’ chances of retaking the House of Representatives, in the latest blow to Donald Trump’s effort to use mid-decade redistricting to preserve his control of Congress.
The tit-for-tat redistricting battle began last year after Trump pressed Texas’s Republican-controlled legislature to redraw that state’s congressional maps in a bid to oust as many as five Democratic House lawmakers in the November midterm elections.
California voters retaliated by approving new maps that could flip five Republican-held seats, and in Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, the newly elected Democratic governor, backed an effort to redraw her state’s maps following her January inauguration. Tuesday’s referendum could help Democrats win four additional House seats in November’s midterm elections.
And Dems did it legally in each case. Fuck off, Ken!
Just get proportional representation for fucks sake.
That wouldn’t be fair to republicans, who cannot win without cheating.
Everytime it’s brought up, Republicans shoot it down. The GOP made this bed, so now they gotta lie in it.
It was too fucking close, too. I’m glad it passed.
I’m also happy that almost all of Hampton Roads was very much on the YES side. Poquoson went very NO and York went somewhat NO, but even James City County and even Charles City County went YES, although James City County was the smallest margin in the entire state.
Newport News where I live was solidly YES. I’m a mod in the subreddit - the last thing I’m doing with reddit - and we got brigaded to hell from people outside the community in three threads about the vote. It was crazy.
Bills have been brought up several times to make district mapping non-partisan, and/or by 3rd party independent agencies. Usually Dems bring them up and republicans vote them down or sabotage them in any way they can.
The process of approving such a process would be partisan, and agreeing on a notion of non-partisanship would be partisan. Anything that would budge the balance of power from where it is would be called partisan. We’re so far down the partisan hole.
HAHAHA GET FUCKED MAGATS
This is a race to the bottom… Rather than trying to address the problem with legislation we’re now just cheering one side corrupting democracy over another.
This won’t end well.
The Democrats introduced as their HR 1 a bill that would outlaw gerrymandering nationwide the last two cogresses where they picked the Speaker. They’ll almost certainly do so in January next year and two years later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_People_Act
All Republicans have to do to end the gerrymandering in VA and CA and who knows where next year is get on board. They could even get a national voter ID rule if they really wanted.
Sadly, like Trump, the whole GOP is really bad at the jobs our tax dollars pay them for.
I have always supported a national voter id on the condition it’s paid for and people are automatically enrolled.
Republicans would never go for it.
Dems should actually run on this and then ask Republicans why they no longer support voter id
This is the correct approach. That bill is full of stuff that “everyone believes in” and should be what the Democrats hammer on every single day.
We’ve watched Dems ineffectually flail for 10 years. This is them actually getting something done for a change.
That’s a whole lotta words just to say, “we take the high road!”
How’s that worked out for us so far?
