The 2026 Virginia redistricting amendment is a legislatively referred constitutional amendment that will appear on the April 21, 2026, ballot in the state of Virginia. If passed, the state legislature would temporarily regain the power to draw the state's congressional districts, which are currently drawn by a bipartisan commission. The authority to draw congressional districts would revert to the commission following the 2030 census. The amendment, which is part of a larger, nationwide gerrymandering battle, was first considered by Virginia lawmakers in October 2025, and was given preliminary approval on October 31. As required, the Virginia General Assembly passed the amendment a second time on January 16, 2026.
On January 27, 2026, a Virginia judge ruled the amendment to be unlawful, blocking it from appearing on the April ballot. However, Virginia Democrats appealed the decision, and on February 13, the Virginia Supreme Court allowed the referendum to proceed as scheduled. On February 19, following the Virginia Supreme Court ruling, a Virginia judge ruled the amendment to be unlawful on grounds unrelated to the original ruling and unrelated to the ruling of the Virginia Supreme Court, once again blocking the proposed amendment from appearing on the April ballot. On March 2, a court ruled that the election can still take place and legal battles will be resolved after the election. Early voting began on March 6, 2026 and is scheduled to end on April 18, 2026.
If voters approve the referendum, a new map already passed by the General Assembly will be used for the 2026 elections, as well as in 2028 and 2030. The map is a Democratic gerrymander which would favor Democrats in 10 out of 11 congressional districts.
In 2025, Texas lawmakers adopted a new congressional map, which is expected to grant Republicans as many as five additional congressional seats. Other states followed suit with their own redistricting plans.
On October 23, 2025, The New York Times reported that Virginia was planning a constitutional amendment to allow for redistricting, with the newspaper being the first to report it.
In Virginia, constitutional amendments have to be approved by the legislature in two consecutive legislative sessions, with a general election in between them, prior to being sent to the public for final passage. On October 24, House Majority Leader Charniele Herring introduced a resolution that would allow the Virginia General Assembly to consider constitutional amendments related to redistricting during a special session. On October 27, the resolution was agreed to by the House of Delegates in a 50 to 42 vote, and on October 29, the state Senate agreed to it in a 21 to 17 vote.
On October 28, four Democratic Virginia Delegates introduced the constitutional amendment. On the same day, Jason Miyares, the Republican Attorney General of Virginia who was also running for a second term in 2025, issued an opinion saying that the process required to add a constitutional amendment to the ballot cannot be shortened by the General Assembly calling a special session during an ongoing election.
On October 29, the Virginia House of Delegates passed the amendment in a 51 to 42 vote on party lines. Before the vote took place, there was contentious debate, and the Sergeant-at-Arms was called to the floor at one point. The bill then moved on to the Senate Privileges & Elections Committee, which approved the bill in an 8 to 6 vote the same day. The Senate passed the bill 21-16 on October 31, sending it to the 164th General Assembly for further consideration.
Democrats retained and expanded their majority in the House of Delegates in the 2025 election, in addition to flipping all three executive offices. Upon winning the trifecta, the Democratic legislative caucuses intended to re-approve the amendment and send it to a Spring 2026 referendum for consideration. Upon approval of the referendum, the amendment and approved map would take effect prior to the 2026 congressional elections. As the amendment needed to be passed a second time, the Senate, on January 16, 2026, passed the constitutional amendment, following the House of Delegates which had done so earlier in the week. Governor Spanberger signed the enabling legislation on February 4.
A lawsuit was filed in Tazewell County Circuit Court against the House and Senate clerks, seeking an injunction against the effort. The lawsuit argued that the purpose of the special session was to settle a budget dispute in 2024, and although the session was still technically open, the new bill was outside of the scope of the session, making it invalid. Delegate Terry Kilgore, state Senators Bill Stanley and Ryan McDougle, and a citizen member of the commonwealth's bipartisan redistricting commission were named as plaintiffs. The lawsuit was initially delayed, as the case's judge, Jack Hurley Jr., declined to intervene in legislative proceedings until the General Assembly had passed the amendment, resulting in Republican plaintiffs temporarily dropping the case. Judge Hurley ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 1999 as a Republican.
Following the General Assembly's re-passage of the amendment to the ballot in January 2026, the case was expanded to request a ruling on all of the following:
Hurley ordered both parties to submit briefs within 10 days.
On January 27, Hurley ruled that the amendment was unlawful, concurring both that the special session did not have the authority to pass such a measure and that the House of Delegates scheduled the election too early to satisfy the postage requirement. Hurley noted that, by the time of the 163rd Virginia General Assembly's passage of the redistricting amendment, over 1 million Virginians had already voted for the general election, over 33% of total turnout. For this, he agreed on the third and final question posed by the Republican plaintiffs, that being that the amendment did not sufficiently pass scrutiny for having been passed "before the general election." The ruling blocked the amendment from going before voters.
Virginia Democratic leaders condemned the decision and announced an intention to appeal the ruling, with House Speaker Don Scott calling the case an example of âÂÂcourt-shopping, plain and simple." They also pointed out that the postage requirement was removed whenever Virginia adopted their current constitution, and is only still in effect because of an oversight in the state code. Later that day, the Virginia Senate passed SB769 (2026), which would repeal the 90-day postage requirement before the election and redirect the appellate process from the Court of Appeals of Virginia to the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, which denied to block the 163rd General Assembly from passing the same amendment in November 2025. This measure must be passed in the House of Delegates and signed by Governor Spanberger by February 19.
On February 13, the Supreme Court of Virginia allowed the special election to approve the new maps to proceed as they consider the case. On February 18, the Republican National Committee filed a separate lawsuit, also in Tazewell county, asking for an emergency injunction to halt voting. The next day, February 19, Judge Hurley granted that motion, barring state officials from "administering, preparing for, taking any action to further the procedure of the referendum, or otherwise moving forward with causing an election to be held on the proposed constitutional amendment", citing the phrase "restore fairness" in the ballot language as misleading and unconstitutional. On March 4, the Virginia Supreme Court stayed that ruling, allowing early voting to begin on March 6. Briefs on the lawsuit are due to the Virginia Supreme Court two days after the April 21 election.
The ballot wording is as follows:<blockquote>Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?</blockquote>
The proposed amendment seeks to amend the constitution to read:
On February 20, 2026, the Virginia General Assembly passed and Governor Spanberger signed legislation drawing a new congressional map for Virginia which would take effect if the referendum succeeds. The map is considered to be a Democratic gerrymander, which based on previous election results would favor Democrats in 10 out of the 11 districts, an increase from the 6 they won in the 2024 congressional elections. The University of Virginia Center for Politics noted Republicans could be potentially competitive in two of the Democratic-favored districts, and described the map as "baconmandered", where strongly Democratic Northern Virginia was cut up across multiple districts stretching to the rest of the state. Notable county split increases include Prince William County, which would go from two congressional districts to five, and Fairfax County, which would go from three congressional districts to five. Sabato's Crystal Ball rates the 9th district as Safe Republican; the 2nd and 6th districts as Tossup; the 5th district as Likely Democrat; and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th districts as Safe Democrat.
As of March 25, the main Democratic-aligned group supporting the referendum, Virginians for Fair Elections, had raised upwards of $33 million, including $15 million from the Hakeem Jeffries-aligned House Majority Forward group, $10 million from the Fairness Project, and $5 million from a nonprofit tied to George Soros. The main Republican-aligned group opposing the referendum, Virginians for Fair Maps, had raised around $3 million, $2.5 million of which came from a group of the same name which has not disclosed its donors.
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