Democrats have claimed victory in the escalating map battle after voters approved new congressional lines in Virginia via referendum. The result shifts the state’s map, which has a 6-5 Democratic edge, to 10-1. Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) argued the move was needed to respond to redistricting efforts undertaken by GOP states such as Texas.
Centrist Republicans, including Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), say the tit-for-tat retaliation is now benefiting Democrats more than Republicans.
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“You’ve got to play chess … and when you have an adversarial opponent, political opponent, you’ve got to always think, ‘What are they going to do in response?’ And I think this was foreseeable,” Bacon, who is retiring at the end of his term, told CNN.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA), a Republican-turned-independent who had his House seat eliminated because of California’s gerrymander last year, was even more critical.
“The Redistricting War has been a national disaster,” Kiley wrote on X Wednesday.
After Virginia’s referendum, Democrats are now favored to net one or two seats overall in an election year that is already expected to punish Trump and the GOP.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), who represents a competitive district, told reporters Wednesday that the loss was felt more than in just the change-up of seats.
“I don’t know how it works out numerically, but that’s almost irrelevant,” he said. “I think it’s bad. You’re losing good incumbents. You’re creating brand new districts that are very lopsided. That’s not what our country needs. We need the opposite. We need to balance out every district in America, not gerrymander every district.
“I think nobody should ever go down this route. We should be un-gerrymandering every district, not gerrymandering every district in America. It’s crazy, and it’s bad for our country.”
Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, several states have undertaken mid-decade redistricting efforts to redraw congressional lines in hopes of keeping the House in 2026. Texas began the war by redrawing its map to shift as many as five House seats into GOP hands. California followed suit by passing a constitutional amendment redrawing its congressional map to shift five seats toward Democrats. Missouri and North Carolina also redraw their maps ahead of the 2026 elections.
Trump’s push to get Indiana to redistrict and net the GOP another two House seats was defeated by Republicans in the state legislature. House Minority Leader Jeffries (D-NY) and national Democrats faced a similar setback in Maryland, where Gov. Wes Moore’s (D-MD) push to redraw the map and eliminate the state’s only Republican House seat was blocked by the state legislature.
“It was an unwinnable and unnecessary war that wasted money in a challenging cycle in which every dollar is needed,” GOP strategist Dennis Lennox told the Washington Examiner. “This only invited retaliation from Democrats who have never been shy about using power. Just look at the absurd map that wiped out Republicans in Virginia for the foreseeable future.”
Not everyone agrees with the narrative that Republicans started the fight, however. Rep. John McGuire (R-VA), whose rural Republican-leaning Virginia House seat will be eliminated by the Virginia gerrymander, said the redistricting battle was being waged long before Texas opted to act.
“I think that’s an unfair narrative from the media,” McGuire said. “It started in New York and Illinois. In fact, in 2022, New York tried to get rid of three Republican seats. That’s where it started. But of course, all over the media and all over Virginia, it was said that started in Texas. It did not start in Texas.”
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Even so, the map wars might not be over just yet. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has called a special legislative session next week to redraw the state’s congressional map, which is split 20-8 in favor of Republicans.
“Florida has the right, and they’ve expressed the interest of doing it there, and I think that should happen,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters Wednesday. “That’s my view.”
Hailey Bullis and David Sivak contributed to this article.
