Democrats now lead in redistricting battle. Take that, Republicans!

Revenge is sweet. That’s how it felt to me last night as I rejoiced when Virginia voters approved a redistricting plan that is expected to result in a 10-1 Democratic majority in the state’s 11 congressional districts, up from a 6-5 majority under the current plan.

Is this fair in a purple state where the electorate narrowly favors Democrats? No. But Republicans have been happily gerrymandering in states that they control for decades, rejecting Democratic pleas to institute a national requirement for independent redistricting commissions to redraw congressional maps every ten years after a census.

So after Trump demanded that Texas engage in redistricting to give Republicans five more seats in advance of the 2026 midterm election, Democrats wisely decided to fight back, rather than meekly go with the outmoded “When they go low, we go high” adage. I think it’s great that my party went just as low after the Republicans did their Texas gerrymandering.

Because NPR is reporting that the current state of the redistricting battle has Democrats ahead 10 seats to 9. Florida is considering a redistricting plan that could give Republicans 3 more seats. But given that Democrats are expected to pick up many House seats in the 2026 midterm election, being down only 13-10 in redistricting is just fine with the Democratic party.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that either party will pick up all of the seats that redistricting was expected to give them. Republicans are at greater risk of this than Democrats, because the voting pattern that gave Trump the presidency in 2024 is splintering big-time, with lots of young and Latino voters deserting the GOP, among others. So supposedly safe Republican seats may shift into Democratic hands this November.

Today a circuit court judge in Virginia blocked the state’s redistricting from going into effect. Almost certainly this is no big deal, as a story from a Virginia news outlet describes:

ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — A Virginia judge blocked the state from certifying the results of Tuesday’s congressional map referendum, deeming the referendum and the bill that triggered it as unconstitutional, according to a judge’s order issued Wednesday.

Virginia’s current attorney general, Jay Jones, confirmed to 7News on Wednesday that his office would appeal the decision.

The order, according to officials, came from the Tazewell Circuit Court, which previously blocked the referendum after repeatedly deeming the vote and the resolution for the referendum unconstitutional, siding with Republicans who filed several suits.

The Virginia Supreme Court overruled two previous orders from the circuit court to block the referendum vote. The state’s highest court is still expected to hear those cases.