Where Is The GOP’s Ground Game To Stop Virginia Dem Gerrymandering?

The Republican National Committee (RNC) and National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) have filed a lawsuit to try to stop Virginia Democrats’ gerrymandering power-grab referendum.

On Thursday, a judge temporarily blocked the Democrat effort, but with a state Supreme Court case allowing the referendum to move forward, Republicans need to be prepared with a ground game to beat the referendum at the ballot box.

Reps. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., and Ben Cline, R-Va., both representing western Virginia districts, joined the RNC / NRCC action, and the RNC filed an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction, as well as a hearing for a temporary restraining order which they have asked to take place before March 2, just before early voting would begin for the April 21 election.

The joint lawsuit, filed in Tazewell County, challenges the wording of the Democrats’ referendum, which claims to “restore fairness in the upcoming elections,” while weaving all but one congressional district, somehow, into deep blue parts of the commonwealth in order to change a 6 Democrat-5 Republican delegation to a 10 Democrat-1 Republican one.

As RNC chairman Joe Gruters said in a press release announcing the lawsuit, “Despite nearly half of Virginians supporting President Trump, Abigail Spanberger and Democrats are working to silence voters and lock in permanent political control.”

The lawsuit also argues the initiative is unconstitutional and a violation of state law. Some of that was affirmed in the decision to another Tazewell County case earlier this month, but the Virginia Supreme Court allowed the election to go forward while opening the possibility to hear challenges afterward.

Newly minted Republican Party of Virginia (VAGOP) chair Jeff Ryer told The Federalist he recognizes the massive hurdles of a post-vote challenge at the Supreme Court, stating, “It’s not impossible, but I do think that they made their decision based in the hopes that they would not have to make a decision.”

Clara Belle Wheeler, former vice chair of the Virginia State Board of Elections, told The Federalist that legal action cannot be trusted on its own to stop the Democrat power grab.

“We’re going to have this election. We’re going to have this referendum. It’s on the ballot, and when the alleged Republicans were running the Department of Elections, set up this April 21 election,” she said.

She added that there is almost no world in which the high court decides to overturn the results of an election after it has taken place, regardless of if the election should have legally happened to begin with.

“I can only hope that [Republicans] have got enough attorneys up their sleeve that they’ve got something that they’re going to pull out,” she continued. “But so far, nobody knows what it is, and now the Supreme Court has said, ‘Go away, little girl, we’re not thinking about this, Virginia. No, there is not a Santa Claus. No, Virginia, there is not a Supreme Court, and we don’t give a whip about the law. We’re just worried about what our Democrat sponsors are telling us to do.’”

One of the clearest signs of that is the Supreme Court’s opinion in the first place, because it was the very same Supreme Court that drew and decided the current maps during regular, census-driven redistricting a couple years ago. They appear more than willing to do the Democrats’ bidding, even if it means overturning their own decisions.

“The bottom line is the Republican Party of Virginia and the Republican leadership in the General Assembly looked all over Virginia,” Wheeler said. “Most of the judiciary in Virginia are Democrats.” That seems to be the reason the lawsuits are being filed in Tazewell County, a place in southwest Virginia that voted nearly 84 percent for Trump.

“It’s disappointing to see the Supreme Court just really going along with what the what, what the Democrats have proposed,” Ryer said. “But in a state where justices are chosen by members of the legislature, you can’t be entirely shocked when the justices defer to the legislature.”

However, even if Republican legal efforts are successful, they need an intense get-out-the-vote effort, including door-knocking, educational efforts, rallying the base, running ads, and more, flexing the infrastructure they should already have in the commonwealth. After all, it is not just about Virginia. The amount of seats at stake are enough to strip Republicans of a U.S. House majority ahead of a midterm election that is expected to go very poorly for Republicans.

‘Nobody Is Matching What Democrats Are Doing’

Republicans need to be prepared with a grassroots campaign effort, and it appears there is not yet national Republican interest in funding it.

As The Federalist reported, some in Virginia have not seen any meaningful opposition arise aside from lawsuits. Some are not even aware the referendum is happening, while Democrats plan on pumping millions, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., into it to win. National Democrats, in other words, are serious about winning the election, while Republicans seem to be ignoring the fact that it will likely take place, and that they will likely lose any challenge made afterword.

Ryer said that the RNC has been “nothing but pleasant, and cooperative, and have listened, et cetera, but you know, they have processes and procedures too. We have to respect those.”

Regarding funding to combat the millions Democrats are spending to win, he said he has heard “very little” from the national party, stating, “I don’t know why they haven’t up to this point. Obviously, I’m optimistic we will be in the future, and it certainly is not for short of asking on our part. They’re going to evaluate, I’m sure, and make the determination on their own.”

“We’re certainly asking for the kind of resources necessary. I know that whatever is free of charge we will get, but whatever isn’t, we will have to have a discussion,” he added.

It is a story somewhat familiar to Virginians who might remember the 2014 U.S. Senate election where Republican candidate Ed Gillespie came within a percentage point of unseating Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. While some blamed Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis’ 2.34 percent take of the electorate, others noticed a lack of interest from the RNC. Ryer said the money was tied up in other races at the time, and no one knew Virginia would be that close.

This time, money from Jeffries and others means “the other side is going to have higher visibility,” Ryer said, as they are able to afford television ads that will give them a “leg up.”

“I know that on our side, just about everybody is talking to [the RNC] to try to get at least some relief from the team Jeffries ads, but we’ll see,” he said. “It’s not like they’ve been an absent player. They haven’t. It’s just that nobody is matching what Democrats are doing.”

As for the VAGOP, Ryer said they are focusing on awareness and basic grassroots outreach, including organizing through local parties to focus on known voters and find out “what it is to take them to get to vote in an April election” — an election time that Virginians have never seen before.

“That would consist of voter contact items: personal door-to door, phones, text messaging of friends — things that campaigns used to do before the advent of technology and vendors who found a way to make it cheaper for those campaigns. We’re going to achieve the same result, but without the same level of expenditure,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we’re ruling out money … we are asking for it and looking for it and hoping that the resources are there to put us up on television, but we have to be pretty discerning along the way.”

Lawsuits are all well and good, and should be pursued vigorously, but Republicans cannot use it as their only strategy. They need to remember what happened in 2020 where, no matter the veracity of a lawsuit, they were systematically thrown out. Even a neutral judge is averse to getting into election disputes, but judges across the board are almost never neutral — and they will often fabricate a win for Democrats, no matter the cost.

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.