Kilgore, Republican legislators blast redistricting bill

RICHMOND - A bill to ask voters to amend the Virginia Constitution's redistricting provisions went to the House of Delegates floor Thursday, and Southwest Virginia legislators criticized how it got there.Gate City Del. Terry Kilgore, R-45, joined Abingdon Del. Israel O'Quinn and Warsaw Del. Hillary Kent in a Thursday press conference questioning how House Bill 1384 was reported to the full House from the House Appropriations Committee instead of the Privileges and Elections Committee.Appropriations, on a 15-7 Democrat majority party-line vote, approved the bill for consideration.The bill, if passed by the House and Senate and signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger, would order an April 21 special referendum election on whether the General Assembly shall approve off-year redistricting in reaction to another state's redistricting from Jan. 1, 2025 to Oct. 31, 2030.Kilgore said Thursday's 9:30 a.m. emergency Appropriations Committee meeting gave no adequate public notice or opportunity for public comment."It's one thing to try and rig an election," Kilgore said. "It's another thing when you're trying to hide it from the public and run it through so fast."At least two redistricting bills had been pre-filed before the state of the 2026 legislative session.Thursday's bill could violate the Code of Virginia's requirement that special elections be announced publicly by the General Assembly's clerks 90 days prior, Kilgore said."They know they have a losing argument on that," Kilgore said of the committee vote. "They're trying to rush the bill to get the desired effect."O'Quinn, R-44 and the ranking Republican on the House Privileges and Elections Committee, said it was more appropriate for P&E to review such legislation because elections and voting are a primary P&E committee function."Anytime that you're going to actually pass a constitutional amendment," said O'Quinn, "it makes its way through the process. Then, we come back with a separate piece of legislation that has the ballot question on it."The ballot question was not subject to debate and is "pretty lopsided," O'Quinn added.HB 1384 includes the referendum question as part of an appropriations bill for legislative automated services software and infrastructure upgrades and special elections funding.Virginia is a purple state with six Democrats and five Republicans in the House of Representatives, O'Quinn said. Redistricting could turn that makeup to 10 Democratic-controlled and one Republican district, he added, with seven of the 10 falling in urban areas, including Northern Virginia."Fairfax, Alexandria and Arlington are going to be running the rest of the state," said Kilgore. "Is that fair?"Demographic shifts since the 1980s have shown increasing proportions of urban population in Virginia, according to census data. The Ninth Congressional District, which leaned Democrat until current Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith succeeded Democrat Rick Boucher, has expanded eastward since 2000 to counter population decline.Kent, R-67, called the bill a Democratic "power grab.""They're looking to do this in the dark when Virginia's voters aren't paying attention," said Kent, "so we're here to shed a light to make sure that Virginians really know what's going on."The move by Virginia Democratic legislators follows a series of states' redistricting measures encouraged by the Trump administration to improve chances of a Republican congressional majority after the 2026 midterm elections. Most states normally redistrict every 10 years following results of the U.S. Census. Texas state legislators passed an off-census year, Republican-favorable redistricting in August, followed by Missouri. Indiana rejected redistricting despite a Republican-controlled state legislature, and California passed its own redistricting measure to target Republican-leaning districts there."I thought this whole session as about affordability," said Kilgore. "How does this improve affordability of somebody in rural Virginia? How does this make life more affordable for someone in Northern Virginia, some family struggling to pay their heating bills and paying their other bills? We ought to focus on affordability, not play political gamesmanship."