SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
In most states, the state legislature controls the congressional district map, and in the redistricting scramble that President Trump set off ahead of next year's midterms, Republicans control more state Houses than Democrats. Virginia is one place Democrats could make changes that benefit their party, even though it is not as heavily Democratic as some other states. Jahd Khalil at member station VPM in Richmond reports that Virginia Democrats say they are ready to go for it.
JAHD KHALIL, BYLINE: If Virginia Democrats want to redraw the state's congressional districts, it takes a few steps, and they took one this month. They gave initial approval for an amendment to the state constitution. It would sideline the state's bipartisan redistricting commission and allow new maps to counter the redistricting in Republican states. It passed with a slim majority.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ayes 21, nos 16. The resolution is agreed to.
KHALIL: Just a few days later, Democratic lawmakers won big in elections. It was fueled by anti-Trump sentiment in a state where thousands of federal workers have been fired. Democratic State Senator Mamie Locke, who was once on the commission in question, said voters showed they want to counter Trump's redistricting push.
MAMIE LOCKE: What we were doing was not something that they saw as a negative, you know, that Democrats are on the right track in terms of where we are in our politics, and that this is not a bad thing.
KHALIL: The legislature still needs to approve the proposed amendment again. Then voters would decide on it in a special election. Senator Ryan McDougle is a Republican and also sat on that redistricting commission. He opposes changing the map now, whatever the recent election showed.
RYAN MCDOUGLE: The maps should not be rigged so one party always gets the result that they want. Virginians said, we want to take the politics out of this and put in a bipartisan redistricting. And that's what we did. That's what we should continue with.
KHALIL: But the election also made the redistricting possible because Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, will replace Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin. Spanberger hasn't gone as far to say she would sign off on new maps yet. She's talked about keeping all options open, and her spokesperson, Connor Joseph, told NPR Spanberger thinks the legislature should be ready to respond to what Trump's been doing. He got Republican lawmakers in Texas, North Carolina and Missouri to redistrict, possibly picking up several House seats. California Democrats countered most of those with their own new map. But Spanberger often talks about working across party lines, an ideal praised as part of the state's political culture.
ERNEST MCGOWEN: Is not necessarily bare knuckles like you would see in California, like you would see in Texas. And so that kind of sense of how Virginia state politics works goes against these kind of national trends.
KHALIL: Ernest McGowen is a political science professor at the University of Richmond. But he says that because of Virginia's federal workforce, voters see Trump as a danger.
MCGOWEN: Virginia was also hit very very very hard by DOGE and by the government shut down. And so there really is no love for President Trump.
KHALIL: It's uncertain which party is ahead in redistricting. There are court challenges, and states are deciding whether to get in or out. Virginia Democrats could get an edge in two or three House seats if they redistrict. Since Republicans hold a few seat majority in the House, any one of those could make all the difference.
For NPR News, I'm Jahd Khalil in Richmond. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.