The voters in the US state of Virginia narrowly approved a new electoral map that favors Democrats on Tuesday night, in a referendum seen as a response to redistricting demanded by Donald Trump in several Republican states.
The “yes” vote won by a small margin in this East Coast state, according to estimates from several American media outlets, including CNN and NBC News. CNN reported that the “yes” vote garnered 50.7% of the votes against the “no” vote which received 49.3% of the votes. “Congratulations to Virginia!” former Democratic president Barack Obama declared, who had directly involved himself in the campaign. “Thank you for showing us what it means to defend our democracy and push back,” he added. “Virginia voters have spoken and, tonight, they have stood up to a president who claims to have ‘rights’ to more Republican seats in Congress,” also congratulated the Democratic governor of the state, Abigail Spanberger, on the same platform.
Trump involved in the campaign
Out of the 11 representatives that Virginia has in the US Congress, six are currently Democrats. With the proposed new territorial redistricting, the hope on the left is to see this number rise to 10 in the crucial midterm elections in November.
The stakes of the election meant that millions of dollars were spent by both sides, and Donald Trump himself got involved in the campaign. The American president participated by phone in a meeting on Monday night, during which he urged people to vote “no.” After the voting centers opened on Tuesday morning, he also called on his Truth Social platform to “save the country,” rejecting the opposition’s initiative.
The famous “gerrymandering”
On the Democratic side, prominent figures from the party were also called upon. Barack Obama remains a very popular figure, to the extent that the opposing camp also used him, broadcasting an old video where he criticizes “gerrymandering.” This practice involves redrawing state districts in a way that dilutes the vote of one party, often resulting in absurd geographic outlines.
In 2025, Donald Trump resurrected this old electoral trick, demanding that Texas redraw its map to allow Republicans to gain five seats in Congress. Ohio and North Carolina followed Texas’s example and redesigned their map to offer a handful of additional seats to the ruling party. Faced with this offensive, the Democratic Party decided to retaliate and carry out its own redistricting in some states, primarily in California. In this state that leans heavily towards the left, a new map was easily approved in a referendum last November, and is expected to nullify Republican gains in Texas.
