Virginia Supreme Court blocks referendum that would have helped Democrats win up to four more US House seats

By Devan Cole, Patrick Svitek, CNN

(CNN) — The Virginia Supreme Court voided Democrats’ attempt to redraw the state’s US House map in an April referendum, a devastating blow to the Democratic Party’s efforts in the national redistricting battle launched by President Donald Trump ahead of this fall’s midterms.

The court ruled that the process of creating the referendum violated the state Constitution.

“The Commonwealth submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner that violated the intervening-election requirement,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote in the majority opinion, referring to a provision of state law that mandates how ballot referendums can be put to voters. “This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.”

The ruling is a major setback to House Democrats and their hopes of capturing the chamber’s majority in the midterms. While they remain in a strong position to win the US House in November due to historical trends and Trump’s unpopularity, Democrats were hoping the redrawing of Virginia’s maps could counteract GOP redistricting gains elsewhere that Trump had demanded.

The redistricting in Virginia would have given Democrats the chance to win as many as four more seats, potentially reducing the state’s GOP representation to a single district. Prior to the referendum, the Republican National Committee and other Republicans filed a series of lawsuits objecting to how the referendum was planned and conducted. The state Supreme Court let the vote go forward with those court cases pending.

Democrats are now eight seats behind Republicans in the national battle to redraw US House maps state by state. And the GOP could make further gains as Southern states reopen their maps following a US Supreme Court ruling that gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

Virginians for Fair Elections, the leading group backing the redistricting referendum, called the impact of the ruling a “deeply troubling moment for Virginia, the nation, and our entire democracy.”

“This fight is not over,” the group said in a statement. “Because at its core, this is bigger than one election — it’s about whether voters decide our democracy, or whether that power can be taken away after the votes are cast.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that supporters of the referendum were “exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision.”

“The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand,” Jeffries said.

Trump celebrated the ruling on Truth Social.

“Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia,” Trump posted.

What the court ruled

The court said that maps put in place in 2021 must be used in the November elections instead. Three justices dissented from the court’s ruling.

Under the state constitution, the General Assembly must vote twice before sending a proposed constitutional amendment to voters for their consideration, with a general election intervening between those votes. Republicans argued that the first vote to approve the referendum – taken in late October 2025 – by the General Assembly did not count because early voting for the general election was well underway.

The court agreed.

“Early Virginia voters unknowingly forfeited their constitutionally protected opportunity to vote for or against delegates who favor or disfavor amending the Constitution by not anticipating a legislative vote on a constitutional amendment four days before the last day of voting,” Kelsey wrote for the four-justice majority.

In addition to the court’s procedural objections to how the Democratic-friendly plan made its way through the legislative process, the decision also criticizes the new map while praising the 2021 version. That map had been drawn by a pair of redistricting experts appointed by the court itself after the state’s redistricting commission, which voters had approved in 2020, failed to produce a map.

“These new districts replace the existing nonpartisan map (representing districts split 6-5 between the two major political parties) with a highly partisan gerrymandered map (representing expected districts divided 10-1 between the two major political parties),” Kelsey wrote.

Writing in dissent, Chief Justice Cleo Powell said the majority had wrongly expanded the meaning of the word “election” to include the early voting period, which she said “is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election.”

“By extending elections in the Commonwealth of Virginia beyond a single day, the majority’s formulation would directly conflict with the federal mandate that elections for federal offices be held on a single day,” she wrote.

What it means for the midterms

The ruling casts a dark cloud over the massive Democratic effort that went into passing the measure, which passed with just under 52 percent of the vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries campaigned for it multiple times, and the nonprofit arm of House Majority PAC, the leading Democratic super PAC in House races, gave over $38 million to “yes” campaign.

“Not good. A major upset in our bid to win House back, though we still can prevail,” one senior Democratic official told CNN. “But the hill just got a little steeper.”

Republicans have been insisting they will defy the political headwinds they face ahead of November’s midterms. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, head of the House GOP campaign arm, said in a statement that the ruling “is yet another sign Republicans have the momentum heading into November.”

“This is a great day for fair elections and the rule of law, and it’s a great day for the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Rep. Ben Cline, one of the Virginia Republicans whose districts was targeted, wrote on X.

Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington state, who leads the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said in a statement: “This is a setback that sends a terrible message to Americans – the powerful and elite will do everything they can to silence you.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Dana Bash and Ethan Cohen contributed to this report.