If the Republicans somehow manage to maintain control of the House of Representatives this fall, they will have Virginia Democrats and Hakeem Jeffries to thank for it.
Democrats spent $70,000,000.00 to break the law. pic.twitter.com/VjA5yRttYM
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) May 8, 2026
Ed wrote about the (mildly) surprising decision from the Virginia Supreme Court to throw out the results of the referendum that would have made Virginia one of the most lopsided congressional maps in the United States, changing the Congressional districts from 5-6 to 9-1 Democrat.
The court did not invalidate the map because it was unfair—this is politics, where fairness is in the eye of the beholder and the person with the power—but because the referendum plainly violated the Virginia constitution, which even today is occasionally a no-no.
The court’s decision matters, of course, for Virginians, who were about to get royally screwed, but it matters much more because the Democrats put their hearts, their souls, and most importantly, $70 million dollars of money they really don’t have, in order to change the likelihood that they could retake the House majority and pad the number of seats they have.
Not only was all that money and effort—not to mention the money that outside groups spent in drumming up the vote, which goes uncounted—wasted, but it had the effect of galvanizing Republicans in Red states to do something they were reluctant to do: fight back hard, and use the Democrats’ own tactics against them.
It’s a disaster for the Democrats, who are losing seats through redistricting that would have remained safe otherwise.
House Democrats fell into a state of anguish on Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a congressional map that would have netted them as many as four seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
Why it matters: The decision is a huge boost to Republicans’ chances of keeping the House in November, with even some Democrats acknowledging they basically need to run the table in November to win now.
- “Damn, California and Virginia were supposed to be our bigger ones,” one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid getting out ahead of their leadership, said in a phone interview after the ruling was released.
- “This means we gotta make sure we have a good wave to win the House … we have to make sure we win a lot of those toss-ups,” the lawmaker said. “Democrats now have to pitch a perfect game.”
- Another House Democrat, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, offered a one-word reaction in a text message to Axios: “F*****ck!!”
What they’re saying: “We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision. No matter what it takes,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in a statement,
- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a statement, “This is a setback that sends a terrible message to Americans – the powerful and elite will do everything they can to silence you.
You have to love that quote from the DCCC. They tried an end-run around the Constitution, and when they lost in their own Supreme Court, they cry about the powerful silencing the little guy. They just tried to disenfranchise 48% of Virginians!
Republicans, even before this court decision, became galvanized and have been passing redistricting maps that totally screw the Democrats, and the Democrats are crying foul, racism, and just about every name in the book because Republicans are doing to them what they just tried to do in Virginia.
The CNN panel didn’t know what to say when they found out the new Congressional seat after Tennessee redistricted will go to a Republican black woman instead of an old white Democrat man.
They had to cut to a commercial 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ZVq76TDc2s
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 8, 2026
In Tennessee the legislature just redrew the map after the Supreme Court invalidated racial Gerrymandering, and the Democrats are crying “racism!” The new district will likely be represented by a black Republican woman, instead of the current white Democratic man, and that is racist. So racist that we got this:
Tennessee’s only Democratic district always voted in a white guy (Steve Cohen), repeatedly rejecting black republicans
Tennessee may end up with MORE black representatives after getting rid of Cohen’s safe seat https://t.co/vHQoh4AAcg
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) May 8, 2026
The little ghetto dashiki routine from Pearson is so tiresome. His dad was a pastor, his mom had a doctorate, and he went to Bowdoin, a school so white it makes Mitt Romney look ethnic. https://t.co/VEes6oKEw5
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 7, 2026
A lot of Republicans were reluctant to go nuclear on redistricting, both because, let’s be real, it is kinda sleazy when it gets out of hand, and because politics can be a game of mutually assured destruction. What goes around can come around.
But Democrats went nuclear in Virginia, and deterrence requires striking back (take note, President Trump). So in the take a dump or get off the pot moment, Republicans went nuclear.
Here is the new CRYSTAL BALL report after the Tennessee redistricting.
STATUS OF THE REDISTRICTING WARS . . .
COMPLETED:
California +5 Dems
Utah +1 Dems
Texas +5 GOP
Florida +4 GOP
North Carolina +1 GOP
Missouri +1 GOP
Ohio +2 GOP
Tennessee +1
GOP TOTAL COMPLETED:… pic.twitter.com/lODbc7xCRj— Ben Hart (@BenHart_Freedom) May 7, 2026
Here is the new CRYSTAL BALL report after the Tennessee redistricting.
STATUS OF THE REDISTRICTING WARS . . .
COMPLETED:
California +5 Dems
Utah +1 Dems
Texas +5 GOP
Florida +4 GOP
North Carolina +1 GOP
Missouri +1 GOP
Ohio +2 GOP
Tennessee +1
GOP TOTAL COMPLETED:
+6 Dems, +14 GOP
PENDING:
Alabama +1 GOP (80% Happening)
Louisiana +2 GOP (90% Happening)
Mississippi +1 GOP (30% Happening)
Virginia +4 Dems (Probably Will be Overturned by VA Supreme Court)
———–
Most Likely Outcome: +17 GOP, +6 Dems
Net Gain of +11 for GOP
———-
Because of gerrymandering (by both parties) only about 10% of House seats are competitive anymore.
So it’s beginning to look like “Game, Set, and Match” for the GOP in both the House and Senate.
And we have not yet factored in the impact of removing 3.5 MILLION illegal migrants from the USA is likely to have on elections, with millions more to be deported (or exit the USA on their own) before 2028.
Republicans could have done this before, of course, but the “norms” more or less prevented it. There have been political redistrictings in the past, and Democrats have made gains without major Republican responses. But this time is different.
Thank you, Abigail Spanberger and the Democrats in Virginia. You made my day.
The Democratic gambit led by Gov. Spanberger to gerrymander virtually every GOP district out of Virginia has backfired in spectacular fashion. The state Supreme Court has now nullified the results of the redistricting vote…https://t.co/awABQtWetW
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 8, 2026
Spanberger said she had no interest in redistricting during her campaign for governor, but as with most things the CIA liar said, it was a ruse to make her seem moderate.
…Some of drew fire from liberal pundits and professors for raising fundamental flaws in the language and process used to gerrymander the state. https://t.co/el7pof1T1O Various “experts” assured the public that the likelihood of this decision was remote and unfounded.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 8, 2026
…Spanberger achieved a level of infamy that is made more impressive by her utter lack of benefit from breaking her promise to voters to oppose gerrymandering. In the meantime, Virginia Democrats have left many Republican and independent voters completely estranged by the excessive effort to extinguish virtually any GOP representatives in the purple state.
She put a lot of political capital into the fight, and came out as a huge loser, both in the decision from the court, and even more so by betraying voters and getting Republicans to massively retaliate.
Hakeem Jeffries, AKA Temu Obama, comes out looking even worse. He not only spent a ton of money to “win” a squeaker of a victory at the polls, but with his loss in the courts, he lost these notional seats, and has less money to fight for even more seats come November.
To call that a huge net negative is…a gross understatement. It more like Napoleon’s march to Moscow.
The intrigue: The ruling even has some lawmakers questioning the wisdom of Democrats spending $62.5 million to push the Virginia redistricting referendum — including nearly $40 million from Jeffries-aligned 501(c)4 House Majority Forward.
- “I feel like this is a colossal waste of resources that will further erode our politics,” a sixth House Democrat told Axios, referring to the entire nationwide redistricting battle.
- “How many millions of dollars are we spending on this when the DNC is in debt and we have 40 frontline races to win?”
Democrats still have a serious shot at taking the House due to discontent with the direction of the country, but the hill they have to climb is much steeper because of Jeffries’ and Spanberger’s colossal mistake.
It couldn’t have happened to a better group of people.
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