Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is telling her fellow party members it is time to move on from redistricting after her state’s highest court ruled her endorsed gerrymander was unconstitutional.
Spanberger told the New York Times in an interview published Friday that it is “outrageously premature” for her fellow Democrats to be focused on redistricting, calling the midterms ahead the “most consequential midterms” of her lifetime. This comes just a week after the United States Supreme Court declined to take up Virginia Democrats’ appeal following the state’s Supreme Court May 8 ruling that lawmakers violated the state’s constitutional procedural requirements by advancing the pro-gerrymander amendment after early voting had already begun.
“It is outrageously premature of us to be talking about any sort of redistricting or map-changing effort when we have to win the most consequential midterms of my lifetime this November,” Spanberger told the Times.
The referendum would have likely resulted in Democrats gaining four more House seats from Virginia, as the lopsided map it approved would have favored Democrats by a 10-1 margin. Virginia voters approved the proposed gerrymander by a narrow margin of four percentage points on April 21 — after the “yes” campaign received a flood of money, including from groups linked to left-wing billionaire George Soros.
“Anytime someone — whether it’s [House Minority Leader] Hakeem [Jeffries] or anyone else — talks about some other point off in the future, it is a distraction from the task at hand, which is winning in November,” Spanberger told the Times.
When it comes to redistricting, the governor noted, “That time is over now.”
Before courts nixed it, Spanberger strongly supported the gerrymander — which she signed into law herself — and the “yes” campaign to greenlight it at the ballot box. The gambit also received the support of former President Barack Obama.
“As early voting begins tomorrow on Virginia’s redistricting amendment, voters should know that Virginia’s approach is different. It is temporary, directly responsive to what other states decide to do, and — most importantly, it preserves Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting process for the future,” the governor said regarding the referendum in early March, WRIC reported.
“What has changed is what we’re seeing in states across the country — and a President who says he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats before this year’s midterm elections,” she added at the time. “Virginians have the opportunity to take action in response to this extraordinary moment in history. That’s why, as a Virginia voter, I’m voting in favor of this amendment.”
Following the initial approval of the now defunct Spanberger-backed map, Florida and Tennessee approved redistricted maps seeking to add up to a combined five more Republican House seats. Both maps remain in effect as of late Friday morning and other states including South Carolina are poised to follow.
A Washington Post poll released in early April found that Spanberger was less popular than each of the eight governors of Virginia before her, including both Democrats and Republicans.
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