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Republicans are divided over Virginia's new redistricting map, which creates a 10-1 Democratic advantage, with party leaders calling it an 'egregious power grab' while others blame GOP messaging for their loss.
Virginia's new map, which gives Democrats the opportunity to pick up four additional seats, passed on slim margins, with 51.5% of votes cast in favor and 48.5% against the ballot measure. Republicans have argued that the close results show the new map is not an accurate reflection of Virginia voters.
"Virginia Democrats can't redraw reality," National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said. "This close margin reinforces that Virginia is a purple state that shouldn't be represented by a severe partisan gerrymander. That's exactly why the courts, who have already ruled twice to block this egregious power grab, should uphold Virginia law."
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The nonprofit group Virginians for Fair Maps, which is chaired by former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, echoed Hudson's call to take the fight to the courts.
"Virginians deserve fair maps and respect for the rule of law, but as voters, they have a right clearly articulated by the Supreme Court in Coleman v. Pross, to vote on constitutional amendments before them at the ballot box only if faced there by a fair process," the co-chairs wrote. "Virginians disenfranchised by today's vote will have their day in court."
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Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., is one of four House Republicans now at a greater risk of losing their re-election following the new map's passage. She claimed that under the new map "conservative voices and values have been eliminated."
"But the fight is far from over," Kiggans wrote in a statement. "My mission remains to hold leaders accountable, to serve the people who elected me, and to once again win the vote in Virginia's Second Congressional District this November."
House Majority Leader Mike Johnson, R-La., said the Republicans will fight against the Democrats.
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"If Democrats are successful in the 2026 midterms, we know this is only the beginning. They will throw open our borders, let crime run rampant in our streets, project weakness on the world stage, make life more expensive for every family, and flood our elections with non-citizens to try and hold on to power forever," Johnson wrote on X. "Republicans have responded in state after state, and we will finish this fight - and in November, we will WIN the midterms."
But other Republican Party members, who have fallen out of favor with President Donald Trump, have suggested that Republicans losing in Virginia is their own fault.
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said the map passed because Republicans haven't been able to deliver on their promised agenda to voters.
"It's the absolute failures of Republicans to pass the agenda that the American people voted for in 2024 and it's the complete and total campaign betrayals by President Trump of him going to war with [sic] Iran and fighting the release of the Epstein files and protecting the elite pedophiles," Greene wrote on X. "There's no amount of money that can be spent to lie to voters and get them to come back and vote for a Republican [sic] right now. If Trump and Republicans had delivered what they promised, this would be different."
Former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele was quick to point out the hypocrisy over the upset over Democrats in Virginia passing a new map, while voters in Texas didn't get a say when Republicans did the same thing.
"Let the whining from my Party begin about the fact the voters in Virginia, unlike Texas (which started all of this gerrymandering mess) actually had a say in whether or not they wanted their congressional maps redrawn," Steele wrote on X. "In Texas, the Republican legislature just did it and not one Republican complained."
