The Virginia House of Delegates approved a procedural resolution opening the door to a mid-decade redistricting plan on Oct. 27.
The vote is only a first step and does not enact new district lines or send an amendment to voters. It authorizes consideration of amendment language during the continued special session.
Lawmakers resumed 2024 Special Session I, which began last year to handle the budget and was recessed. HJ 6006 changes the scope of business for that still-open session so a resolution “proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia related to reapportionment or redistricting may be offered and considered.”
After the vote, the House adjourned until Wednesday, when House leaders said the amendment will be introduced. As of Monday afternoon, no text had been filed or released publicly. The Senate then debated whether to concur with the House’s move to change the scope of the session.
Republicans in the House opposed the move on process and substance.
“Candor requires admitting that this bad idea of mid-decade redistricting did get its 2025 launch by the president,” said GOP Delegate Robert Lee Ware, Jr. “Just because a bad idea was proposed, and even taken up by a few of our sister states, such as North Carolina or California, is not a reason for Virginia to follow suit.”
He also called the effort “a transparent political power play aimed at heightening one party’s power.”
Democrats argued the procedural resolution was in order and said constitutional questions should be taken up when amendment text is before the chambers throughout this week.
The action comes amid a wider mid-cycle fight over U.S. House lines. Republican-led states moved first, with Texas and Missouri redrawing maps this year with President Donald Trump’s support. Texas Republicans have said that the redistricting was done to correct what they and the Department of Justice said were districts unconstitutionally drawn by combining minorities to form a majority.
