Virginia’s plan to redraw its congressional maps to create as many as 4 new Democratic seats is useless, struck down by the state supreme court docket. Its impression on Virginia politics, although, remains to be being felt — and nowhere extra visibly than in Virginia’s First District.
The district, which covers a lot of Virginia’s shoreline and consists of elements of the Richmond suburbs, is likely one of the few within the nation that’s truly aggressive, and it’s been thrown into chaos because of the ongoing gerrymandering wars which have consumed the 2026 midterm cycle.
To be taught extra, I traveled there final month for the newest episode of Vox’s video podcast, America, Truly.
Initially, Virginians voted to redraw their maps to be extra favorable to Democrats in response to Republican efforts to do the identical in Missouri, Texas, and elsewhere. However a court docket effort threw out that end result, restoring the state’s authentic maps and sowing uncertainty for candidates and volunteers who had been advocating for the change.
Much more, Virginia has develop into a spot the place the underlying tensions within the gerrymandering battle have begun to bubble as much as the floor. Newly elected Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s approval ranking has taken a success since endorsing the Democrats’ marketing campaign to attract new maps, and he or she just lately admonished Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries towards pursuing his “most warfare, in all places, on a regular basis” technique in terms of redistricting. (The phrase, as Jeffries has famous, isn’t authentic to him: It’s additionally how the Trump camp described its personal redistricting efforts.)
“It’s outrageously untimely of us to be speaking about any kind of redistricting or map altering effort when we have now to win essentially the most consequential midterms of my lifetime this November,” Spanberger instructed the New York Occasions in Might.
On our journey to Virginia’s First District, America, Truly spoke with Democratic volunteers who had organized for the referendum and have been now pivoting to choosing a main candidate. We additionally attended a candidate discussion board on the Libbie Mill Library in Richmond, Virginia, the place a number of candidates vying to be the Democratic nominee within the district made their pitches to voters.
At occasions like this, it’s simpler to see how the celebration’s message for the midterms is taking form. Listed below are three takeaways:
1) Redistricting exhaustion is actual
I perceive the pickle Spanberger is in. Democrats organized, knocked doorways, and satisfied voters to embrace a redistricting effort that many individuals have been uncomfortable with — after which watched a court docket erase it. Katie Sitterson, an Indivisible Virginia volunteer we talked to in Virginia’s First, described the morale hit as taking “the air out of your sails.”
Once I requested whether or not it had dampened volunteer enthusiasm, she put it bluntly: “Individuals begin to really feel like, ‘What does it matter?’ I attempted, and we’re doing all this stuff, and we even voted, and we used our voice, and it nonetheless didn’t work.” She mentioned the reversal confirms the precise “lack of company” voters already really feel — and makes it that a lot tougher to maintain folks within the struggle for a full 12 months.
I believe that explains a few of Spanberger’s resistance to Jeffries’ technique. The “all warfare, on a regular basis” transfer is one thing that excites the bottom — worthwhile in a midterm or nationwide main. Selecting and selecting your spots to expend political capital is extra vital in purple areas like Virginia’s First or in statewide elections.
2) “Woke” isn’t useless
The brief interval the place Democrats leaned into social justice language through the 2020 election appears to have handed. However on the Indivisible candidate discussion board in Richmond, there have been numerous medical masks being worn, an open embrace of identification politics, and candidates leaning in.
“I all the time say that pleasure is one of the best resistance we have now,” one candidate instructed attendees. “Hope is just not a unclean phrase.” One other launched himself as “a baby of immigrants,” and a 3rd described herself as “unapologetically progressive…who doesn’t take any company cash.”
Lately, “wokeness” has develop into kind of a punchline in elite Democratic circles, as an increasing number of politicians run away from the progressive message of 2020. However these are values folks legitimately imagine in and can re-emerge as some extent of pressure in a nationwide Democratic main.
3) Democrats have a message
If “affordability” was the buzzword of the 2025 elections because of New York Metropolis Mayor Zohran Mamdani, I believe “corruption” is rising as the identical factor for 2026, pushed by a response to President Donald Trump’s actions and elevated by main nationwide politicians like Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA). However what’s most clear in these Home races is that many candidates don’t see affordability and corruption as separate points, however as linked concepts. Principally: Issues are getting dearer for you as Trump is grifting within the White Home.
Right here’s how Tim Cywinski, one of many Democrats operating in Virginia’s First, put it: “From my expertise with on a regular basis folks — Republican, Democrat, left, proper, everybody between — it’s all about affordability and corruption.” He mentioned the connection doesn’t require explaining insider buying and selling or crypto: “You don’t should know the nuances of the inventory market. You simply see that they’re getting wealthier, whereas on the identical time all people else is getting…it’s tougher to stay. Life shouldn’t be this unaffordable. And should you say, ‘Sure, it’s due to them, but additionally on the identical time, they’re enriching themselves,’ that drives folks loopy. And for them, it doesn’t matter who they voted for within the final election.”
That candy spot was Cywinski’s focus — declaring that costs are rising for many Individuals as Trump places a seeming “for-sale check in entrance of the White Home.” Candidates suppose that distinction can’t solely encourage Democrats to prove, however peel off sufficient independents and Trump voters to win a district like Virginia’s First.
As all the time, there’s way more within the full present, so take heed to America, Truly wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Vox’s YouTube channel.
