A top Democratic leader in Virginia said that the legislature will move forward with a redistricting effort that could eliminate as many as four Republicans from the House of Representative, citing the need to hit back against President Donald Trump "bullying" other states to do the same against Democrats.
State Rep. Don Scott, the Democratic Speaker for the Virginia House of Delegates, spoke about the situation during a recent appearance at a meeting of the Virginia Property Owners Alliance. He suggested that the planned gerrymander could go so far as to produce nine Democratic districts and only one Republican, a loss of four seats for GOP. He also stressed that the Virginia Democrats would have preferred not to take this step, but that they were forced by Trump's coercion of red states.
"We didn't want to have to do this," Scott said. "This was done because Donald Trump told Texas, Indiana, North Carolina—our neighbors — to rig their elections."
Texas over the summer signed into law a new congressional district map that could potentially cost Democrats five seats in the House, after being strongly urged to redraw their map early by Trump. The map was recently struck down by an appeals court, which found that Texas Republicans explicitly gerrymandered districts on the basis of race, which is currently illegal, instead of strictly along partisan lines. The decision has been appealed to the Supreme Court, where a decision is still pending.
“If a bully came and punched you in the mouth, you didn’t sit there and cry,” Scott, himself a native of Texas, said. “You better punch back.
“We have an opportunity to do some redistricting, to look at redrawing the maps — all of the congressional delegation," he continued. "Right now, it’s six–five [in favor of] Democrats — six Democrats, five Republicans. Ten–one is not out of the realm. We’re gonna take a look at it.”
The decision to move forward with redrawn congressional maps will likely be put to voters next year, as it recently was in California. Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, said during her campaign that she would not oppose an effort by state Democrats to pursue a new congressional map.