Former President Barack Obama has endorsed Virginia Democrats’ congressional redistricting initiative, marking his involvement in another state-level mapping dispute as midterm elections approach.
Obama’s endorsement came Thursday, one day following the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision to allow the redistricting question to proceed to an April 21 voter referendum. Early voting starts Friday.
This marks Obama’s second endorsement of a Democratic redistricting effort that asks voters to temporarily bypass independent map-drawing processes in favor of party-drawn districts to counteract former President Donald Trump’s push for GOP gerrymandering in Republican-led states. California voters passed a comparable measure last fall to respond to Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting efforts that started in Texas.
In a video provided to The Associated Press before its public release, Obama urges Virginia residents to back the voter referendum on the redrawn districts. He stated the measure will ensure “your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states.”
“This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall,” Obama states in the video, distributed by Virginians for Fair Elections. “And voters will have the final say over what the maps look like.”
Virginia Democrats unveiled a new congressional map in February designed to provide their party with four additional seats. The Democratic-controlled legislature approved the proposed map, and Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger signed it into law.
The map becomes active only with voter approval and Virginia Supreme Court backing.
Obama also emphasizes that it’s a temporary measure, similar to California’s proposal. Following the 2030 census, he explains, “Virginia will go back to a system that lets a bipartisan redistricting commission redraw the maps.”
Virginia’s situation has changed rapidly, with no certainty the new map will be implemented this year even with voter approval.
Wednesday’s Virginia Supreme Court decision was its second ruling allowing the new map to go before voters while justices examine legal challenges to the initiative. The court has yet to determine whether the mid-decade redistricting plan and voter referendum are constitutional, suggesting the April vote might be meaningless if it upholds a lower court’s ruling blocking the effort.
Virginia Democratic legislators have characterized their redistricting proposal as a reaction to Trump’s encouragement of Republican states to redraw their maps to preserve a GOP House majority. Republicans call it an attempt by northern Virginia liberals to control congressional districts throughout the state.
Virginia currently has six Democrats and five Republicans representing the state in the U.S. House, elected from districts created by a court after a bipartisan legislative commission couldn’t reach agreement on a map following the 2020 census.
Redistricting has become a key issue for Obama.
He has highlighted the matter since departing office in 2017 and helped fundraise for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and its related organizations, one of which has filed and backed lawsuits in multiple states challenging GOP-drawn districts. Eric Holder, Obama’s former attorney general, leads that organization.
Obama actively supported California’s Democratic redistricting ballot measure last year and appeared in advertisements backing Proposition 50, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld last month.
At an NDRC fundraising event, Obama said partisan gerrymandering wasn’t his “preference.” However, he added, if Democrats “don’t respond effectively, then this White House and Republican-controlled state governments all across the country, they will not stop, because they do not appear to believe in this idea of an inclusive, expansive democracy.”
