Spanberger signs bill that could help Democrats gain four House seats

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has signed a bill that includes new congressional maps intended to give Democrats four additional seats in Congress, though the process faces significant hurdles before the maps can take effect.

Spanberger signed House Bill 29 late Friday night after a rushed approval process in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. Democrats are scrambling to act in time for this fall’s midterm congressional elections to counter President Donald Trump’s push for new districts in Republican states, which he hopes will help his party retain its narrow control of the House.

States normally carve up new districts after a census, once every 10 years. Trump’s demand to do so mid-decade has created a gerrymandering frenzy.

Texas, North Carolina, Missouri and Ohio have so far added seats favoring Republicans; Virginia is attempting to join California in drawing Democratic districts to counter them, with Maryland and other blue states considering similar efforts.

In Virginia, early voting could begin March 6 ahead of an April 21 referendum on amending the state constitution to allow the new maps, but this week a judge in Tazewell County — a heavily Republican area in the rural southwest — issued an injunction to put the process on hold.

Circuit Judge Jack S. Hurley Jr. acted on a suit filed by the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and two of the state’s GOP members of Congress — Rep. Morgan Griffith and Rep. Ben Cline — challenging the wording of the referendum question.

Virginia’s delegation features six Democrats and five Republicans. The maps in the legislation Spanberger signed Friday night would create one solid red district in the southwest corner of the state and 10 others that lean blue.

This was the second time Hurley has moved to block the redistricting. The Virginia Supreme Court is reviewing an earlier injunction issued by Hurley in a lawsuit filed by state Republican lawmakers challenging the legislative process, but the high court ruled that the referendum can proceed in the meantime.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones (D) said Friday evening that he had filed motions with the state Supreme Court to appeal Hurley’s latest action and keep the referendum on track.

“These arguments made in Tazewell are already before the Supreme Court of Virginia, the proper forum to consider the arguments, which has set a schedule for receiving arguments and has justifiably allowed the vote to proceed during this time,” Jones said in a written statement.

The bill Spanberger signed Friday night is a broad spending package affecting state expenses through the end of the budget year, June 30, setting aside $5 million for the statewide referendum. It contains the maps Democrats say they will enact if voters give them that power.

Those maps lean blue, judging by recent election outcomes, with heavily Democratic areas in Fairfax and Prince William counties carved into parts of five districts that stretch into the middle of the state. Lawmakers tweaked the maps slightly over the past week in ways that made the highly competitive 2nd Congressional District in Hampton Roads — now held by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R) — slightly more blue.

Republicans have blasted the effort as a naked partisan power grab and condemned Spanberger for supporting it. She ran last year as a bipartisan centrist and was initially cool to the redistricting idea, saying she believes Democrats could pick up seats in Virginia without drawing new maps.

More recently, Spanberger has said the effort is needed to respond to Trump’s pressure on Republican states and said she “trusts the voters” to make the right decision.