Democrats spent $66 million to steal four congressional seats – and Virginia justices just weighed in.
Scott Presler saw it coming.
In a 4-3 ruling handed down Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court voided the results of Democrats' April redistricting referendum – and the maps that would have flipped Virginia from 6-5 Republican to 10-1 Democrat are dead.
How Virginia Democrats Violated the State Constitution to Put Gerrymandering on the Ballot
Here's what Democrats actually attempted.
Virginia voters approved a bipartisan redistricting commission in 2020 – a clean, fair process that took the map-drawing power away from politicians.
Democrats spent 2025 and 2026 trying to blow it up.
They called a special session – one convened to handle budget disputes – and used it to ram through a constitutional amendment that would hand the redistricting power back to themselves.
The problem: Virginia's constitution requires a constitutional amendment to pass the legislature twice, with a general election in between, so voters can weigh in on their representatives' positions before the second vote.
Democrats took their first vote in late October 2025 – after more than one million Virginians had already cast early ballots for the general election.
Those voters never had the chance to evaluate their delegates on this amendment because the amendment didn't exist yet when they voted.
Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote it plainly in the majority opinion: "Early Virginia voters unknowingly forfeited their constitutionally protected opportunity to vote for or against delegates who favor or disfavor amending the Constitution by not anticipating a legislative vote on a constitutional amendment four days before the last day of voting."
The constitutional violation, Kelsey wrote, "irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void."
Scott Presler and the Grassroots Fight That Helped Kill Virginia Gerrymandering
Scott Presler didn't wait for Washington to notice.
The Get Out The Vote expert is a grassroots mobilizing force and without those efforts it may not have even been close.
While national Republicans were slow to engage ahead of the redistricting fight, Presler headed out around the state.
His post celebrating the Virginia Supreme Court decision shows a clip from Chesterfield County in the stretch run ahead of the vote where he stood in front of a packed crowd at the Great American Ranch, and fired up activists with exactly what was at stake.
https://x.com/ScottPresler/status/2052757135470034991“>https://x.com/ScottPresler/status/2052757135470034991
"We are so excited to stop the unconstitutional gerrymandering scam," he told them, camera in hand.
The signs in the crowd read "DON'T BE FOOLED – VOTE NO."
Outside groups had poured more than $66 million into passing this referendum.
Democrats had a 17-to-1 spending advantage in the early weeks.
Presler and the grassroots closed that gap – Republicans narrowed it to 3-to-1 by election day.
Democrats got the referendum by three points.
But the court voided it, because Democrats broke the constitutional process to get it there.
RNC Chair Joe Gruters said it directly: "Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose."
Trump posted on Truth Social that it was a "Huge win for the Republican Party, and America."
What the Virginia Redistricting Ruling Means for the 2026 Midterms
Democrats need a net gain of at least three House seats to flip the majority in November.
Virginia was their crown jewel.
The new maps would have handed Democrats four additional seats – reducing Republican representation in the commonwealth to a single district.
Combined with gains from California and other states, Democrats were looking at ten new seats from redistricting alone.
That path is gone.
Republicans now hold a commanding lead in the national redistricting fight, and the Southern states are just getting started – after the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling weakening Voting Rights Act protections, Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana have opened their maps.
Democrats blew $66 million and the machinery of an entire state government on a procedural shortcut.
The bipartisan commission Virginia voters created in 2020 draws the maps.
Scott Presler and a crowd of Virginians made sure of it.
Sources:
- Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, Virginia Supreme Court Majority Opinion, Supreme Court of Virginia v. Virginia Redistricting Amendment, May 8, 2026.
- Joe Gruters, RNC Chairman Statement, Republican National Committee, May 8, 2026.
- Donald J. Trump, Truth Social post, May 8, 2026.
- Scott Presler, [@ScottPresler], Twitter/X post and video, May 8, 2026.
- Markus Schmidt, "Supreme Court of Virginia strikes down redistricting amendment, keeps current maps in place," Virginia Mercury, May 8, 2026.
- Jane C. Timm, "Virginia Supreme Court blocks Democratic congressional map, boosting GOP midterm hopes," NBC News, May 8, 2026.
