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Virginia Democrats who once championed redistricting reform are now drafting a constitutional amendment to let them redraw the state’s U.S. House district maps, a reversal critics say undermines their own 2020 push for an independent commission.
The legislature reconvened in a special session in Richmond this week, where Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas sparred with critics on X, ripped former President Donald Trump and mocked Republicans with a GIF of herself dancing to Famous Dex’s “Hoes Mad.”
Lucas, of Portsmouth, previously heralded the state’s successful Democrat-led 2020 effort to create an independent redistricting commission to draw decennial legislative maps but claimed more recently that Trump was to blame for her change of heart.
“These pieces of enabling legislation create a complete redistricting package to work alongside the historic constitutional amendment,” Lucas said at the time, calling the original plan a populist, “equitable, transparent and bipartisan process.”
TEXAS GOP LAWMAKERS POISED TO FINALIZE TRUMP-BACKED MAP AFTER DEM REDISTRICTING WALKOUT ENDS
Virginia Senate Leaders L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, speak in Richmond. (Minh Connors/Getty Images)
Critics on X locked on to her and other Democrats’ past support for the redistricting commission, with one writing that “Louise doesn’t care about democracy.”
More than two-thirds of voters approved the original commission at the ballot box, and one critic quipped that Lucas “now wants to throw all those votes in the trash.”
“No Kings (Or Queens) Amirite?” the critic quipped.
Lucas retweeted the critic and blamed Trump for her apparent flip-flop.
“Yep, that would be correct. Did you not read my previous post? When D. Trump pushed for Texas to redistrict prior to the midterms, all of that went right out the window,” Lucas said.
“So you can bet your a– that Democrats are ready for this fight,” she said as Gov. Glenn Youngkin repeatedly decried the maneuver as a power grab and Virginia’s entire federal Republican delegation convened in Richmond to speak out against it.
Wearing a boxing robe, state Sen. Louise Lucas celebrates her win for the 18th District state Senate Democratic nomination at Bide-A-Wee golf course in Portsmouth, Va. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The Democrat responded by slamming the congresspeople, posting with a GIF of CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer announcing “breaking news,” which transitioned into a grinning Lucas tossing a paper and dancing as “Hoes Mad” played in the background.
Lucas separately added that the federal lawmakers — Reps. Morgan Griffith of the New River Valley, Jennifer Kiggans of the Hampton Roads-Tidewater area, John McGuire of Southside Virginia, Rob Wittman of the Northern Neck and Ben Cline of the Shenandoah Valley — should be more concerned about the government remaining shut down.
She shared an image of a 10-1 Democratic map of Virginia that a data scientist created that would leave only Griffith in office if implemented. It included a GIF captioned “taking notes.”
“This rank hypocrisy only serves to strengthen our position. They can join the unemployment line with the federal employees they have turned their backs on,” Lucas said.
Lucas said Republicans are “nuts” to believe Democrats will be “steamrolled.”
“Donald Trump started this mess so we will fight fire with fire.”
Both Democratic groups in favor, like blue Virginia, and some other observers dubbed the current effort a “Scott-mander” or “Scotty-mander” after House Speaker Don Scott, D-Norfolk, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon.
Surovell had motioned blocking the official reading of a message from Youngkin to the legislature as it reconvened, according to Virginia Mercury reporter Markus Schmidt.
Surovell reportedly called Youngkin the “most partisan” governor in state history and a man more concerned about presidential aspirations.
One Surovell critic remarked on X that notorious former Confederate officer Gov. “Extra Billy” Smith would like a word with regard to hyper-partisanship.
Beyond Senate leadership, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger’s past support for the 2020 redistricting commission, whose maps are now under threat, resurfaced as Youngkin accused her of being “bought and paid for by the far left” after a PAC tied to Obama ally Eric Holder poured money into her campaign.
“All it took was $150,000 from the Democrat Redistricting Committee to change her position,” Youngkin said, urging voters to support Winsome Earle-Sears as his successor.
Spanberger originally said, “Gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy and weakens the individual voices that form our electorates.”
State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Midlothian, mocked Spanberger by retweeting her original opposition to gerrymandering, adding the response, “Update?”
Back in Democratic leadership, state Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton, who co-sponsored the original commission amendment, wrote in 2018 that “citizens… need to have the ultimate say in how these lines are drawn” and that she hoped other lawmakers would agree with the creation of the commission that is now in jeopardy.
State Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Short Pump, also previously opposed gerrymandering, saying at the time of the original commission’s founding that Virginia Democrats rightly made “fair elections part of their campaigns.”
In a 2020 column for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, VanValkenburg said that, as a high school civics teacher, his own students dubbed partisan redistricting efforts “cheating with maps.”
“Make no mistake, it’s on us to end this practice,” he wrote at the time. “Let’s live up to our own high standards … and pass meaningful reform now.”
Five years later, VanValkenburg offered a different take in comments Monday about the GOP delegation’s visit to Richmond in protest.
“These GOP members could be back in D.C. voting on a bill to end mid-decade redistricting to stop all states, including GOP ones,” he said.
“A bill was introduced to do just that. But they really only care about helping Trump. Not representing Virginians. Miss me with these crocodile tears.”
On the campaign trail, Republican lieutenant governor candidate John Reid slammed Democrats for calling lawmakers back to Richmond.
He also highlighted a short clip of state Del. Bonita Anthony, D-Norfolk, who offered brief honorific remarks during Monday’s session to praise a group that helps what she called “birthing people.”
Elsewhere, critics of the sudden redistricting effort shared other historical quotes warning of such politicking.
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One came from the most famous Virginia Democrat in history, President Thomas Jefferson, who once offered a premonition, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49.”
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