U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Virginia Democrats’ Bid To Revive Pro-Democratic Voting Map

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a bid by Virginia Democrats to revive a voting map designed to help their party wrest control of the U.S. House of Representatives from President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

“Lawyers for a group of Republican legislators (along with an election official and two registered voters) urged the U”

SCOTUSblog

The justices declined to halt a ruling by Virginia’s top court that blocked a voter-approved pro-Democratic map for the midterms, denying a request by Democrats in the state.

SCOTUSblog

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, said on X that “The Supreme Court of the United States has now joined the Supreme Court of Virginia in choosing to nullify an election and the votes of more than three million Virginians.”

The dispute centered on a Virginia Supreme Court 4-3 decision on May 8 that threw out the state’s voter-approved map, ruling that Democratic lawmakers had not followed proper procedures when they rushed to approve the referendum in time to put the ballot initiative before voters ahead of the midterms.

The Hill reported that the 4-3 ruling eliminated four House pickup opportunities in the Old Dominion for Democrats in the midterm elections, leaving Republicans a shot at netting between six and seven seats that they would have otherwise lost, according to analysis by the Cook Political Report.

In a filing on Thursday afternoon, lawyers for a group of Republican legislators urged the U.S. Supreme Court to leave in place the Virginia Supreme Court’s redistricting ruling, calling the request to pause the state supreme court’s decision “extraordinary.”

SCOTUSblog reported that the Republican legislators stressed the case involved “state courts applying state law to hold state actors accountable,” and argued the Supreme Court should not intervene now because Virginia’s attorney general, Jay Jones, had identified May 12 as the point of no return for on-the-ground election preparations.

The Hill

The Hill said Spanberger later fumed that the Supreme Court had “joined the Supreme Court of Virginia in choosing to nullify an election and the votes of more than three million Virginians,” after the justices declined to block the split decision from Virginia’s top court.

The Hill also reported that Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones called the Supreme Court’s response “yet another profoundly troubling example of the continued national attack on voting rights and the rule of law by Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts.”

SCOTUSblog added that the Supreme Court’s action came after Democrats asked the justices to intervene, while Republicans argued Jones and the Democrats did not make federal-law arguments below and that the Virginia Supreme Court “didn’t decide any.”

The dispute over Virginia’s congressional map is tied to a broader mid-decade redistricting fight, with Republicans holding a clear advantage as states reconfigure district boundaries outside the normal cycle following the decennial census.

“Spanberger says state and U”

Virginia Business

Virginia Business | Other reported that Democrats and Republicans-affiliated groups spent close to $100 million on the referendum campaign, and that the Virginia Supreme Court’s May 8 decision eliminated four House pickup opportunities for Democrats in the midterm elections.

The Hill said Spanberger indicated Virginia would move ahead with its old congressional map, citing the May 12 deadline for any changes, and reported that many Virginia Democrats were “shell-shocked” because the redistricting effort was one of the party’s last attempts ahead of the midterms.

The Hill also quoted Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.) saying “all options” remain on the table for Democrats to respond to the state high court’s ruling, while she focused on the “political fight” and on preventing what she described as dilution of Black voters and elimination of Black representation.

SCOTUSblog reported that Republican legislators argued the Supreme Court should leave the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling in place because Jones and the Democrats did not raise federal claims below, and because Spanberger indicated Virginia will not use the 2026 map in the upcoming elections.