Spanberger gives up bid to remake Virginia's congressional maps after court rules it unconstitutional

Democrat Governor Abigail Spanberger in Virginia has conceded that the state will be using the old district map in the 2026 midterm elections after the map Democrats tried to push through was struck down by the Virginia Supreme Court.

The comments conceding that they will use the current map instead of attempting to make more changes come after State Attorney General Jay Jones filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court in an attempt to reinstate the map that would have likely flipped four GOP seats to the Democrats in the upcoming midterms.

Spanberger made the comment to outlet WTOP that the petition sent to SCOTUS is “important, but when it comes to the execution of elections, no matter the outcome in that case, we will be running our elections beginning next month with early voting on the current maps that we have.”

“What needs to happen is we need to focus on the task at hand, which is winning races in November,” Spanberger added. “I believe, somewhat doggedly, that we will win two to four seats in the House of Representatives. … That is my goal. That is what I know is possible.”

Spanberger, during her campaign, had said that she had "no plans" to redraw the maps in Virginia. That changed once she became governor, but the effort did not pan out.

Virginia’s primaries are set for August 4, and early voting starts on June 19. The deadline for changing the maps has also already passed. Currently, there are five Republican districts and six Democrat districts in Virginia.

The comments from Spanberger solidify that the state will be using the same map come November, even as the litigation of the other map plays out. The debacle over redistricting is a portion of a larger battle between Democrats and Republicans to see which party will control the US House of Representatives come the midterm elections.

The new map, which was put together by the Democrat-controlled legislature, would have seen that six-to-five split likely become a 10-to-one split, heavily favoring Democrats. It was narrowly passed in an April election, but was quickly entangled in a legal battle. Currently, the GOP has a razor-thin majority in Congress, and President Donald Trump, along with other GOP lawmakers, have been pushing to redistrict states in the nation in an effort to keep the House.