President Donald Trump denounced the redistricting election in Virginia as “RIGGED,” and voiced his hope that the courts would strike the new congressional map down.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump questioned the legitimacy of the Tuesday voting results, which narrowly passed with 1,575,288 “Yes” votes and 1,486,230 “No” votes, with over 95% of the vote counted, according to the New York Times.
“All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!” Trump’s post said, alluding to his claims about election fraud in the 2020 election.
He also complained about the controversial language used in the ballot initiative, calling it “purposefully unintelligible and deceptive.”
“As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice,’” Trump concluded.
Trump’s claims of new rigged elections had largely subsided over the last few years with Republican electoral victories, so his Wednesday claim is his first in a while.
Though most Republicans have shied away from suggesting the results of the Tuesday ballot measure were illegitimate, Trump tapped into several criticisms other officials have used, especially the language used in the ballot measure. Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff Ryer described the wording as “blatantly dishonest.”
“I know we are disappointed by tonight’s result. Evidently, a sufficient number of Virginians trusted the blatantly dishonest language the Democrats placed on the ballot to make our Commonwealth the most severely gerrymandered state in the nation,” Ryer said after the measure was successful.
Virginia House of Delegates Minority Leader Terry Kilgore said the description of the changed maps as being made to “restore fairness” was “not neutral framing.”
VIRGINIA GOP CHAIRMAN SAYS DEMOCRATS USED ‘DISHONEST LANGUAGE’ TO PASS NEW MAP
The wording of the ballot initiative read: “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?”
Though the chances are narrow, Republicans are hoping the new map, which goes from a 6-5 map favoring Democrats to a 10-1 map favoring Democrats, can be shot down in court.
