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Partisan Mud Fight, or Focus on the Midterms? Redistricting Divides Democrats.
With Democratic efforts to redraw Virginia’s congressional boundaries in shambles for now, two central figures in the fight are at odds over what to do next.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, continues to push for “maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,” vowing with a phrase he borrowed from Republicans to redraft lines to give Democrats an advantage not only in Virginia but across the country before the 2028 elections.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, whose approval ratings dropped precipitously as she campaigned for her state’s redistricting referendum, is urging her party to drop its quest for partisan advantage in favor of a more pressing issue: winning the midterms.
“It is outrageously premature of us to be talking about any sort of redistricting or map changing effort when we have to win the most consequential midterms of my lifetime this November,” Ms. Spanberger said in an interview this week, taking an unsubtle jab at Mr. Jeffries and reflecting broader disquiet among Democrats about how to counter Republican gerrymanders after the Virginia Supreme Court ruled the referendum there unconstitutional.
The issue burst into view this week on the sidelines of a policy conference hosted by the Center for American Progress in Washington. Ms. Spanberger said her party’s continued focus on redistricting was a distraction from addressing affordability, President Trump’s leadership and other issues that she said would matter far more to voters this year.
She did not say she would oppose implementing a partisan gerrymander in Virginia before the 2028 elections. But the issue is one she and some other Democrats would prefer to leave aside for now and instead focus on this fall’s midterm elections.
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