In the sixteen years I served in the House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly, I learned a lot about legislating. Among those lessons was to never assume you have a mandate that you don’t actually possess. The hubris that accompanies a partisan victory, putting the entire legislature and the executive branches in the hands of one party, can be dangerous.
Over the years, I saw my own party zealously address issues that didn’t reflect what people had elected us to do. The outcome was predictable. We lost seats in the following election. When legislators act as if there is no limit to what they can do, they frequently bump up against an electorate that does not agree. We are seeing this play out in Virginia this very day. On 21 April 2026, next month, a Constitutional Referendum will be put to the people, who will be asked to approve one of the most despicably corrupt legislative initiatives ever passed by a party with unassailable control over the entire legislative process. The people must vote “no.”
The issue at hand is an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia, which would permit the Democratic majority to redraw Virginia’s 11 Congressional Districts to favor them 10-to 1. This grossly partisan act, referred to as Gerrymandering, would allow the Democrats to wrongly wipe away 4 Congressional seats currently held by Republicans. Indeed, 65 percent of Virginians in 2020 firmly expressed their opposition to partisan Gerrymandering when they voted for a Constitutional Amendment outlawing partisan redistricting.
In place of the old, corrupt system, Virginians created an independent redistricting commission designed to prevent politicians from drawing their own maps. Under the new law, redistricting would take place every ten years following the national census. But now Democrats are asking voters to suspend that fair-minded system and permit them to conduct a mid-decade redistricting that would artificially expand the six districts the Democrats hold to ten.
I recall the many debates we had in the General Assembly over the 2020 reform. For years, Democrats bewailed the old system whereby the majority in the General Assembly would draw the lines. They demanded a non-partisan system. Not all Republicans favored that reform, but when it went to a vote in 2020, the Republican majority advocated that voters support a system that was fair. And the Democrats? Sensing that they might have the majority in the years to come, they did a complete about-face to oppose the 2020 non-partisan redistricting Constitutional Amendment. Simply put, they wanted the power, not an objectively fair system that would have been in the hands of the people through a non-partisan commission.
You should not be surprised to hear that even now, Democrats in Virginia are actively supporting an unjust Constitutional Amendment that would, in effect, override what Virginia has already agreed is best for the Commonwealth. The hypocrisy is astonishing. Congressman Bobby Scott supports this contemptible maneuver. However, when the State of North Carolina pursued mid-decade redistricting, Scott labeled it “stealing three seats.” My own Congressman Eugene Vindman says that ending Virginia’s non-partisan redistricting is fair-minded since other states have done so. Declaring, “We didn’t start this fight here,” Vindman revels in revenge, not in what is the right thing to do.
And more stunning than anyone is Governor Abigail Spanberger’s posture on the issue. She actually supported the 2020 Amendment, but now says Virginia must fight “fire with fire.” Even more alarming is her acknowledgment that upending redistricting is just a “temporary” measure, further saying that after the next census, Virginia will return to what two-thirds of Virginians passed in 2020. In other words, Spanberger wants to soothe us, saying, “Hey, it’s OK. After we’re done cheating you, just this once, we will play by the rules again.”
It should be clear to all of us that what motivates corrupt Democratic legislators is lust for power, not reform. But don’t be fooled. The Virginia Constitution requires that districts not “unduly favor or disfavor any political party.” That is precisely what Democrats are doing. They are asking you to participate in their political larceny. In essence, they are banking that voters will be as ill-motivated as they are. We must prove them wrong! If independent redistricting was right in 2020, it is right now.
A final thought. In 1887, English Catholic historian, liberal politician, and writer Lord Acton was a strong advocate for individual liberty. Warning of the dangers of concentrated authority, Acton observed, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Democrats are revealing to all of us the inherent risk in increasing authority, which erodes moral judgment. Their unchecked power is leading to inevitable corruption. It falls to us to check their abuse of power. And we will do so when all of us vote “NO” on 21 April.
0 Comments