A New Redistricting Amendment Is One of the First Items VA Dems Will Take Up Starting 1/14/26
With the new year now having arrived, it’s definitely time to start thinking about the 2026 Virginia General Assembly, which is set to kick off in just 13 days (on January 14). Presumably one of the first items on the agenda for Democrats – who will have a massive majority in the House of Delegates, along with a narrow (21-19) majority in the State Senate – undoubtedly will be passage of a new constitutional amendment on redistricting. On this subect, as Speaker Don Scott said earlier this month:......
So that’s a lot of what the House of Delegates Democrats’ leadership is thinking. How about the State Senate Democrats? For starters, we definitely know how Senate President Pro Tem Louise Lucas is thinking, because she’s tweeted many times (e.g., see here) about her strong preference for a 10 Democrats-1 Republican map (note: currently, we’re at 6D-5R, although Abigail Spanberger won two of those Republican-held seats, VA01 and VA02, in the gubernatorial election). As for VA Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, he said in early December that Virginia redistricting efforts were “full steam ahead.” Sen. Surovell also said, in early November: “Listen, there’s two seats…that are pretty obviously in play. And after that, you know, it probably gets pretty hard, but it’s, you know, anything’s possible…I actually have not had that specific of a conversation [with Dems in Washington].”
In sum, the state of play right now is that Virginia General Assembly Democrats are planning to take up the new redistricting amendment pretty much right away when the legislature convenes on January 14. And almost certainly, the amendment will pass both chambers (with all Democrats voting yes, all Republicans voting no). The question is, will Democrats also unveil possible maps at that point, or will they wait until if and when the amendment is approved by voters in the spring? Along those lines, would unveiling maps PRIOR to Virginians voting on the amendment: a) be the right thing to do; b) make it more or less likely for the amendment to pass? Along those lines, let’s look at some possible 9D-2R and 10D-1R maps that have been floating around, been shared by Sen. Louise Lucas, etc.
https://bluevirginia.us/2026/01/a-new-redistricting-amendment-is-one-of-the-first-items-va-dems-will-take-up-starting-1-14-should-they-shoot-for-a-10d-1r-or-9d-2r-map/