Virginia's congressional districts in effect since the 2022 elections Interactive map versionVirginia's congressional districts as proposed by the Virginia General Assembly for the 2026 Redistricting Amendment
However, on January 27, a Virginia judge ruled the amendment to be unlawful, blocking it from appearing on the April ballot. Virginia Democrats intend to appeal the decision.
On October 23, 2025, The New York Times reported that Virginia was planning a constitutional amendment to allow for redistricting,[4] with the newspaper being the first to report it.[2]
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.[5] 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.[6]
On October 28, four Democratic Virginia Delegates introduced the constitutional amendment.[7] 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.[8]
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.[9] The Senate passed the bill 21-16 on October 31, sending it to the 164th General Assembly for further consideration.[10]
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.[11] As the amendment needed to be passed a second time,[11] the Senate, on January 16, 2026, passed the constitutional amendment, following the House of Delegates which had done so earlier in the week. The proposed election day was April 21.[12]
A lawsuit was filed in Tazewell County General District 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.[13][14] Judge Hurley ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 1999 as a Republican.[15]
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:
Whether or not the General Assembly was able to pass a constitutional amendment during a special session not called to consider it;
Whether or not the General Assembly had violated a statutory mandate which requires it to post any proposed constitutional amendment at circuit clerk offices for public inspection at least 90 days before the election on which it would be voted on;
Whether or not the General Assembly's first passage had actually met the requirement to pass the amendment both before and after a general election, as early voting had started over a month prior.[16][17]
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.[18][19] 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."[3] The ruling blocked the amendment from going before voters.[20]
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 “court-shopping, plain and simple."[21] 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.[15] Later that day, the Virginia Senate passed SB769 (2026),[22] 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.[23] This measure must be passed in the House of Delegates and signed by Governor Spanberger by February 19.[12]
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?
Proposed changes
The proposed amendment seeks to amend the constitution to read:[9]
ARTICLE II
FRANCHISE AND OFFICERS
Section 6. Apportionment.
Members of the House of Representatives of the United States and members of the Senate and of the House of Delegates of the General Assembly shall be elected from electoral districts established pursuant to this section and Section 6-A of this Constitution. Every electoral district shall be composed of contiguous and compact territory and shall be so constituted as to give, as nearly as is practicable, representation in proportion to the population of the district. Every electoral district shall be drawn in accordance with the requirements of federal and state laws that address racial and ethnic fairness, including the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and judicial decisions interpreting such laws. Districts shall provide, where practicable, opportunities for racial and ethnic communities to elect candidates of their choice. The Commonwealth shall be reapportioned into electoral districts in accordance with this section and Section 6-A in the year 2021 and every ten years thereafter, except that the General Assembly shall beauthorized to modify one or more congressional districts at any point following the adoption of a decennial reapportionment law, but prior to the next decennial census, in the event that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state's congressional districts at any point following that state's adoption of a decennial reapportionment law for any purpose other than (i) the completion of the state's decennial redistricting in response to a federal census and reapportionment mandated by the Constitution of the United States and established in federal law or (ii) as ordered by any state or federal court to remedy an unlawful or unconstitutional district map. Any such decennial reapportionment law, or reapportionment law modifying one or more congressionaldistricts, shall take effect immediately and not be subject to the limitations contained in Article IV, Section 13, of this Constitution. The districts delineated in the decennialany reapportionment law shall be implemented for the November general election for the United States House of Representatives, Senate, or House of Delegates, respectively, that is held immediately prior to the expiration of the term being served in the year that the reapportionment law is required to be enacted. A member in office at the time that a decennial redistricting law is enacted shall complete his term of office and shall continue to represent the district from which he was elected for the duration of such term of office so long as he does not move his residence from the district from which he was elected. Any vacancy occurring during such term shall be filled from the same district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled.
SCHEDULE
Section 6. Application and duration of certain redistricting amendments.
The authorization in Article II, Section 6 authorizing the General Assembly to modify one or morecongressional districts at any point following adoption of a decennial reapportionment law in the event that any State of the United States of America conducts a redistricting of such state's congressional districts at any point following that state's adoption of a decennial reapportionment law shall be limited to making such modifications between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030, in response to actions taken by another state between January 1, 2025, and October 31, 2030.
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