Virginia Democrats have outdone all others in the unethical realm of political partisan gerrymandering. The Virginia Way is dead.
Democrats have made an absurd map that deliberately turns the Commonwealth from 6- 5 Democrat- Republican to 10- 1. The Democrats’ new 10- 1 map does not reflect the will of the electorate here in Virginia. We recently went through a lengthy redistricting reform, all of which will be null and void under the Democrats’ new plan.
Adding to the list of creatures used to describe gerrymandered districts, Virginia Democrats have found precincts for a new creation; the blue-tailed lobster.
Stretching and snaking from Arlington to Augusta and down to Powhatan, the new 7th is not a contiguous territory, especially in such a populated area. Breakdown by political party clearly shows that this blue-tailed lobster is dominated by Republican red counties in the west and the south (the lobster’s claws). But all of those voters are outweighed by that little sliver of Arlington’s high population density (the blue tail). That community, a liberal beltway community, is noticeably different from the communities of Augusta, Culpeper, Powhatan, and the rest of the district south of Interstate-495. This should matter.
The breakdown, tallied by VPAP, illustrates how ridiculous and how one-sided these new districts are. For the blue-tailed lobster 7th District, the breakdown is as follows.
176,403 eligible aged voters from Republican districts 5 and 6.
609,807 eligible aged voters from Democrat districts 7, 8, 10 and 11.
295,924 of the new district comes from the old 8th, which was Arlington. Add in the old 11th District precincts in Fairfax, 135,384, and that totals 54% of the new district. So that little sliver of Arlington snakes through Fairfax and completely drowns out the voters in the mass majority of geography stretching all the way to Augusta in the west and Powhatan in the south.
This new congressional map is as obnoxious as Sen. Louise Lucas’s promise of “TEN FUCKING ONE.” Those are her words describing how she will draw the new map, both shouted and posted on X. She’s irredeemable at this point. May God have mercy on her tortured soul.
The gerrymandering is so blatant that Virginia Democrats had to hide a retroactive repeal of the law preventing political partisan gerrymandering. § 24.2-304.04. Standards and criteria for congressional and state legislative districts spells out exactly what Democrats can’t do. This new gerrymandering from Democrats clearly violates sections 5-8:
5. Districts shall be drawn to preserve communities of interest. For purposes of this subdivision, a “community of interest” means a neighborhood or any geographically defined group of people living in an area who share similar social, cultural, and economic interests. A “community of interest” does not include a community based upon political affiliation or relationship with a political party, elected official, or candidate for office.
6. Districts shall be composed of contiguous territory, with no district contiguous only by connections by water running downstream or upriver, and political boundaries may be considered.
7. Districts shall be composed of compact territory and shall be drawn employing one or more standard numerical measures of individual and average district compactness, both statewide and district by district.
8. A map of districts shall not, when considered on a statewide basis, unduly favor or disfavor any political party.
That last one especially flies in the face of Lucas yelling,”TEN FUCKING ONE!”
The 2026 Budget Bill repeals the above section because Democrats are clearly breaking the law. This should not be allowed for matters of decency. Any republic can’t last under such gamesmanship.
The trickery doesn’t end there, unfortunately. Democrats have also changed the requirement for collecting signatures for candidates to appear of the ballot. Candidates for congress no longer have to engage voters in the district they are attempting to run in for ballot access. Arlington Democrats can muster up enough signatures for every candidate in the Commonwealth, which is another example of not respecting contiguous territory.
The Virginia Way is dead.
But the Virginia Constitution is not dead yet. Gerrymandering Democrats must amend the Constitution to allow for this powerplay to go through. Voters will decide by referendum on April 21 if a congressional district that stretches from Arlington to Augusta and snakes down to Powatan constitutes a district composed of contiguous territory, which doesn’t unduly favor of disfavor any political party. What a joke.
Vote No on the April 21st Referendum. Reject political partisan gerrymandering. Reject blue-tailed lobster shaped districts.
Map from StateNavigate.org