Former President Barack Obama on Thursday threw his support behind a redistricting effort in Virginia that aims to flip four Republican-held US House seats ahead of November’s midterm elections. The map proposed by Democrats, who control the Virginia legislature, targets Republican-held seats, largely by snaking districts out from the heavily Democratic suburbs that surround Washington, DC. “This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall,” Obama said in the video. Obama previously endorsed a successful redistricting effort in California last year that could help Democrats flip as many as five Republican-controlled seats. “That’s why, as a Virginia voter, I’m voting in favor of this amendment.”Currently, the state’s constitution vests a bipartisan commission with the power to draw maps.

Source: CNN March 05, 2026 18:03 UTC