Miyares: VA Dems’ Gerrymandering Gambit Is Unconstitutional

Virginia Democrats’ last-minute efforts to gerrymander the state in their party’s favor ahead of the 2026 midterm elections violate the Virginia Constitution, according to state Attorney General Jason Miyares.

The determination was disclosed in a legal opinion released by Miyares on Tuesday in his capacity as Virginia’s chief law enforcement officer. The opinion was issued in response to an inquiry from a Republican delegate about the legality of Democrats’ ongoing attempts to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

This week, Democrat leaders in the state’s General Assembly are moving forward with plans to pass a constitutional amendment proposal that seeks to sidestep the state’s recently adopted redistricting commission and pave the way for their party to implement a map advantaging their party ahead of the 2026 midterms. State Democrats currently hold slim majorities in the House (51-49) and Senate (21-19), and control six of the commonwealth’s 11 congressional districts, according to The Daily Caller.

Under the Virginia Constitution, proposed amendments must first be passed by both chambers of the General Assembly in two consecutive legislative sessions. Should they receive such approval, these measures are then submitted to voters for consideration “not sooner than ninety days after final passage by the General Assembly,” and must receive majority support from the electorate to ratify the state’s founding document.

According to Miyares, the aforementioned GOP delegate’s inquiry to his office centered on the “requirement that the resolution approving a proposed amendment be ‘referred to the General Assembly at its first regular session held after the next general election of members of the House of Delegates.’” The plan put forward by Democrats, as it seems, is to pass the proposed redistricting amendment before the Nov. 4 election and again once the new General Assembly takes office in January, with the hopes that Virginia voters approve it ahead of the 2026 midterms.

As noted by Miyares, however, “Under Virginia law, the entire membership of Virginia House of Delegates is elected every two years, in odd-numbered years, for terms beginning in the following even-numbered year.” Contrary to Democrats’ apparent belief otherwise, he continued, “Virginia voters are currently casting their ballots for the candidates they prefer to represent them as delegates for the term that begins in 2026 — and have been doing so for weeks.”

“Although November 4, 2025 is an election day in the Commonwealth it, standing alone, does not constitute the ‘next general election’” under the Virginia Constitution, Miyares wrote. “Under current Virginia law, the election voting process in Virginia spans 45 days. The closing of the polls on November 4, 2025 will be the culmination of the ongoing election process, which commenced September 19, 2025. … Accordingly, because a general election of delegates is already underway, the November 4th culmination of this 2025 election cannot be deemed to be the ‘next general election.’ It is the current general election.”

The Republican attorney general concluded that “the next general election of the members of the House of Delegates for purposes of amending Virginia’s Constitution will be in 2027, two years from the ongoing 2025 general election.” Therefore, he noted, “only those proposed constitutional amendments that were approved prior to September 19, 2025, are ones that can be referred to the regular session that begins in January 2026.”

In other words, according to Miyares, there is no lawful path available for Democrats to redistrict the state ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Democrat efforts to outmaneuver redistricting commissions approved by voters are also underway in California. Under Proposition 50 — which will be considered by voters this November — the Golden State would temporarily forgo its redistricting commission and implement a new congressional map that attempts to offset potential Republican gains in Texas, where the state legislature recently adopted a more GOP-favorable map.

As The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway previously observed, Democrats “don’t really have much room to operate” when it comes to redistricting in states they control because, in many cases, they’ve already gerrymandered those states as much as possible in their favor.

“Republicans actually could do much more,” Hemingway said. Democrats “are making this a big issue because they’re freaking out about how many more seats could be obtained if other states did what Texas is doing … whereas they don’t really have much room to operate to increase their congressional districts.”

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood