Barack Obama Urges Virginia Voters to Approve Democrats’ Redistricting Plan Ahead of April 21 Vote

Virginia’s redistricting referendum has become a national political flashpoint as former President Barack Obama released new videos urging voters to approve Democrats’ plans to redraw the state’s congressional map for the 2026 midterms.

“Former president Barack Obama made perhaps his clearest case for supporting Virginia Democrats’ redistricting efforts in a video released Friday”

Democracy Docket

Democracy Docket says the move was made necessary because “GOP-backed groups have been running ads in Virginia of Obama saying in the past that he was against partisan redistricting,” as early voting on the measure draws to a close today.

Democracy Docket

It also reports that voters “will have another chance to vote in the special election on April 21,” while Obama pushes for a constitutional amendment that would allow Virginia to redraw congressional districts.

The amendment, Democracy Docket says, would temporarily suspend Virginia’s bipartisan commission created in 2020 so Democrats can “level the political playing field” in response to GOP redistricting campaigns.

Fox News frames the same effort as a “ridiculous new district map” and claims Democrats are trying to give themselves “10 House representatives to just one for Republicans.”

In that Fox News account, Obama tells Virginians that giving Democrats “90% of the Old Dominion's Congressional seats” creates “fairness,” and it argues the measure is temporary and would return to normal in 2030.

Across the competing portrayals, the referendum’s timing is central: Democracy Docket says the ballot referendum is for this year’s midterms, and Mother Jones says the referendum is on April 21, with early March mailers arriving ahead of that vote.

Democracy Docket describes the constitutional amendment Obama is backing as a mechanism to redraw congressional districts in Virginia for the 2026 midterms, while temporarily suspending the state’s bipartisan commission.

It says the bipartisan commission was created in 2020 to help ensure that redistricting did not become a partisan project, but the amendment would “temporarily suspend Virginia’s bipartisan commission so that Democrats can level the political playing field.”

Fox News

The article adds that the bipartisan commission would be restored in time for Virginia’s 2031 standard redistricting plans under the new law if passed.

Democracy Docket places the referendum in a broader national context by saying Republicans have redistricted maps to give themselves extra House seats in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina, and are planning to do the same in Florida.

Mother Jones similarly ties the referendum to a wider redistricting arms race, saying Democrats propose temporarily replacing Virginia’s current district lines drawn by a bipartisan commission that “result in a split of six Democrats and five Republicans.”

Mother Jones says the new map “could net Democrats up to four new seats” if voters approve it, and it describes the referendum as “the last, best opportunity for Democrats to play offense on redistricting before the midterms.”

Fox News, by contrast, argues the Democrats’ plan is designed to “disenfranchise GOP voters” and claims the map gives Democrats “90% of the Old Dominion's Congressional seats.”

The dispute over the referendum has also centered on messaging and targeted mailers, with Democracy Docket and Mother Jones describing competing narratives aimed at voters.

“Beginning in early March, Virginia voters, particularly members of the Black community, began receiving mailers that compared a proposal by Democrats to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional districts to the Jim Crow era”

Mother Jones

Democracy Docket says Virginia Republican groups have been running ads and sending out mailers emphasizing Obama’s past opposition to partisan redistricting, and it reports that “Many of the Republican ads and mailers opposing this effort have targeted Black voters.”

It adds that those mailers used images of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow-era voter intimidation to convince voters not to support the ballot referendum.

In response, Democracy Docket says former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder posted a social media video on Thursday to clear the air on the mailers and Obama’s support for redistricting Virginia.

Holder’s quoted remarks in Democracy Docket are direct and specific: “Now, let me be straight with you. These ads are deceptive. They’re disgraceful and they’re deeply racist. And to add insult to injury, they are lying about President Obama.”

Mother Jones provides a different account of the mailers’ content and sender, saying that beginning in early March, Virginia voters “began receiving mailers” that compared a Democrats’ proposal to the Jim Crow era.

Mother Jones says one mailer featured images of the KKK in white hoods and teenagers running from police in the 1960s, and it quotes the mailer’s text: “Just like Jim Crow, they want to silence your voice.”

Mother Jones’ reporting adds a financial layer to the mailer controversy by tracing the Justice for Democracy PAC’s funding and describing a dark money network.

It says the mailers were sent by “the Justice for Democracy PAC,” founded by former state delegate A.C. Cordoza, who served two terms as the only Black Republican in the Virginia legislature before losing his seat last November.

Democracy Docket

Mother Jones says Cordoza’s PAC has received “nearly $9 million in donations in recent weeks” from a dark money group funded in the past by Peter Thiel, and it identifies that group as “Per Aspera Policy Incorporated.”

The article says Per Aspera Policy “wrote four seven-figure checks to Cordoza’s PAC in March and April,” and it specifies that Thiel made a “six-figure donation to Per Aspera Policy in 2018” to boost Kris Kobach’s failed campaign for governor of Kansas.

Mother Jones also reports that Per Aspera Policy gave “$200,000 in 2022 to a super PAC supporting Vance when he ran for Senate in Ohio,” and it says Thiel donated “$15 million” to that pro-Vance super PAC.

It further says Per Aspera Policy is registered in Massachusetts and “does not have to disclose its donors,” and it quotes a source saying “Thiel has nothing to do with it” and “has not donated to Per Aspera Policy for years.”

Democracy Docket describes GOP-backed ads and mailers aimed at confusing voters, while Fox News attacks the Democratic effort without providing the same donor-specific details.

The sources portray the referendum as having immediate consequences for the midterm election and for how redistricting power is used across states.

Mother Jones says Virginia represents “the last, best opportunity for Democrats to play offense on redistricting before the midterms,” and it links the vote to other states’ actions and to the Supreme Court’s consideration of the Voting Rights Act.

Fox News

It says Florida is planning to convene a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map, which could net Republicans “anywhere from two to five more seats,” while the Supreme Court is weighing whether to strike down “the key remaining section of the Voting Rights Act,” which could shift “another half dozen seats” to the GOP.

Democracy Docket similarly argues that the amendment is needed to counterbalance GOP redistricting campaigns in other states that would allow Trump to more easily implement his agenda.

It quotes Obama’s case for the ballot: “By voting ‘Yes’ you have a chance to do something important not just for the commonwealth but for our entire country,” and “By voting ‘Yes,’ you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.”

Fox News, in contrast, argues Democrats are trying to “disenfranchise GOP voters” and claims Obama’s role is to help Democrats “lie their way across the finish line,” with voters set to hit the polls on Tuesday.

Across the accounts, the next step is the vote itself and the immediate political effects it could have on the congressional delegation, with Mother Jones describing a potential “10-1 advantage” and Democracy Docket describing the possibility of Democrats winning “four extra seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.”