On Friday, May 8, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the Democrat-pushed redistricting referendum violated the state constitution and threw the results out.

The Court ruled that the General Assembly had violated a requirement in Virginia’s Constitution that legislation proposing an amendment pass twice with a general election for the House of Delegates in between.

The majority opinion, written by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, was blunt: “This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.” FFXnow

Here is what Virginia Democrats tried to do, and who did it:

• Governor Abigail Spanberger signed the legislation — twice — that put the referendum on the ballot, after campaigning against partisan mid-decade redistricting in 2025. The April 21 special election was ordered after the General Assembly twice passed and current Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed legislation proposing a one-time, mid-decade redistricting process. FFXnow
• Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34), who represents southeastern Fairfax County, drove the bill through the Senate. After the ruling, Surovell maintained that Democrats had properly followed Virginia’s established process for amending the Constitution, calling the Supreme Court’s ruling “wrong on the law and unprecedented in its consequences.” FFXnow
• The proposed map would have split Fairfax County across five separate congressional districts — up from three — and dispersed the influence of blue Northern Virginia by carving it into five districts. Local voters would have less weight, not more. FFXnow
• The new map would have let the General Assembly implement new Congressional districts drawn to favor Democrats in 10 out of 11 seats. FFXnow
• You paid for it. The state allocated $5 million to administer the now-moot special election. FFXnow

Then came the response from the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. They did not accept the court’s interpretation of the Virginia Constitution. They attacked it. The FCDC blasted the ruling as “a stunning betrayal” of the majority of Virginia voters. A 4-3 decision applying the plain text of the state constitution is not a betrayal. It is the rule of law. FFXnow

House Speaker Don Scott (D-88) and Attorney General Jay Jones are taking the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court anyway, despite a court stacked with justices unlikely to overturn a state court’s reading of state law.

The election calendar now snaps back into place. The primary election will be held on Aug. 4 after it was postponed from its typical June time frame due to the redistricting referendum. Senator Mark Warner (D) is on the ballot. So are Don Beyer (VA-8), Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10), and James Walkinshaw (VA-11) — who has voted with House Democrats nearly 100 percent of the time since winning his 2025 special election. The filing deadline is May 26. FFXnow

Fairfax County voters are about to find out whether their representatives believe in elections — or only in the elections they win.