Sen. Mark Warner’s push for a Virginia redistricting amendment backfired in a way Democrats did not expect, when a judge he once appointed joined the majority that tossed the referendum. The court ruled the process violated the state constitution, undoing a voter-approved map that many Democrats hoped would lock in an advantage. The ruling has exposed the risks of trying to engineer permanent political gains instead of following the rule of law.
Warner threw his weight and money behind the referendum, appearing at events and contributing to the campaign that pushed the change. The effort promised to redraw congressional lines in a way favorable to Democrats and was sold as a corrective measure for fair representation. But the result instead highlighted a legal technicality that blew the whole plan apart and left Democrats scrambling to explain what went wrong.
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The decisive opinion came from D. Arthur Kelsey, a justice Warner appointed to the bench years earlier when he was governor. Kelsey concluded the referendum violated a constitutional sequencing requirement that demands an intervening election between the first and second legislative passages of a proposed amendment. That procedural snag made the voter-approved measure legally invalid despite the outcome at the polls.
When Warner appointed Kelsey to the Virginia Court of Appeals in 2002, he praised the then-Suffolk circuit judge as having shown “a keen intellect, a strong work ethic and a commitment to equal justice,” according to a report from Virginia Lawyers Weekly at the time. “Although I had not met Judge Kelsey before this process began, I have spoken to him at length, reviewed his numerous opinions and consulted with those who know him well,” Warner added in 2002. Those earlier endorsements now sit awkwardly alongside a ruling that gutted a cornerstone of Warner’s recent strategy.
Warner had also framed the referendum as a populist corrective, issuing a public statement that respected the court but noted voter participation. He said, “it’s impossible to ignore that more than three million Virginians already cast their ballots on the amendment and deserved to have their voices heard.” Then he went on to cast the fight in national terms by criticizing the opposition and promising a vigorous showing in November.
“Donald Trump assumed he could tilt the playing field and lock in political advantage before a single ballot was cast. But Virginians are paying attention,” Warner also said in his public statement. “They want leaders who will protect their rights, defend their freedoms, and actually focus on lowering costs and getting things done. Democrats will still show up this November, we will still compete everywhere, and when the votes are counted, Virginians will send a strong message about the kind of leadership they want.”
The court’s opinion spelled out the consequences the proposed map would have produced, noting that the proposed change would have transformed the state’s congressional split from a close 6-5 balance to an extreme 10-1 tilt. The ruling explained that such a rearrangement would effectively mute the votes of nearly half the electorate and concentrate disproportionate influence in the hands of one party. That kind of map-making is what opponents have long warned about when lawmakers try to redraw districts for political gain.
Kelsey pointed out that under the proposed lines roughly 47% of Virginians who supported one party in the last congressional election would end up represented by just 9% of the state’s delegation. Conversely, 51% of Virginians who voted for the other party would be represented by 91% of the delegation, the opinion noted. Those numbers made clear why the court saw the plan as a heavy partisan gerrymander rather than an honest effort at fairness.
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The fallout was immediate, with state Democrats calling the decision disappointing and insisting voters’ voices had been ignored. One Democrat declared, “More than three million Virginians cast their ballots in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, and the majority of Virginia voters voted to push back against a President who said he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats in Congress with a temporary and responsive referendum. They made their voices heard,” and pledged to keep fighting. Another added, “I am disappointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia’s ruling, but my focus as Governor will be on ensuring that all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard this November in the midterm elections because in those elections we — the voters — will have the final say.”
