Virginia Congressional Districts, 118th Congress (2)

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

is currently divided into 11

congressional district Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts and legislative districts, electorates, or wards in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional bod ...

s, each represented by a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

Current districts and representatives

List of members of the United States House delegation from Virginia, their terms, their district boundaries, and the district political ratings according to the

CPVI The Cook Partisan Voting Index, abbreviated Cook PVI, CPVI, or PVI, is a measurement of how strongly a United States congressional district or U.S. state leans toward the Democratic or Republican Party, compared to the nation as a whole, based ...

. The delegation has a total of 11 members, with 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans since the

2022 midterm elections The 2022 United States elections were held on November 8, 2022, with the exception of absentee balloting. During this U.S. midterm election, which occurred during the first term of incumbent president Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, all 4 ...

and the special election of 2023. The death of Rep.

Donald McEachin Aston Donald McEachin ( ; October 10, 1961 – November 28, 2022) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 4th congressional district from 2017 until his death in 2022. His district was based in ...

on November 28, 2022, left the 4th congressional district seat empty. Following the results of a special election to fill his seat on February 21, 2023, Jennifer McClellan made history by becoming Virginia's first black congresswoman-elect.

Historical background

Apportionment

The apportionment of seats for the House of Representatives between the states is determined following each census. The number of seats to which Virginia has been entitled is as follows:

List of former and current districts

Virginia Congressional Districts by party

Current districts *, pop. 805,159 *, pop. 741,551 *, pop. 739,840 *, pop. 771,899 *, pop. 727,064 *, pop. 752,763 *, pop. 790,084 *, pop. 801,609 *, pop. 711,755 *, pop. 850,118 *, pop. 778,215 Former districts *, obsolete since the 1860 census *, obsolete since the 1860 census *, obsolete since the 1850 census *, obsolete since the 1850 census *, obsolete since the 1840 census *, obsolete since the 1840 census *, obsolete since the 1840 census *, obsolete since the 1840 census *, obsolete since the 1840 census *, obsolete since the 1840 census *, obsolete since the 1830 census *, obsolete since the 1820 census *, obsolete since 1935''

District boundaries 1973-2017

Table of United States congressional district boundary maps in the State of Virginia, are presented chronologically below for the most recent iterations following the redistricting of the 1960s, after the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

ruled that congressional and state legislative districts had to satisfy the

one man, one vote "One man, one vote", or "one person, one vote", expresses the principle that individuals should have equal representation in voting. This slogan is used by advocates of political equality to refer to such electoral reforms as universal suffrage, ...

criteria for equal representation. The state legislature had long delayed redistricting, leading to outsize influence by rural districts and under-representation of urban areas. All redistricting events that took place in Virginia between 1973 and 2013 are shown.

Gerrymandering

Virginia pre-2016 congressional districts were ranked the 5th worst in the country by one analysis because counties and cities were broken into multiple pieces to create heavily partisan districts. Virginia's congressional districts did not meet the "competitive" mark of a 5% margin of victory, but they averaged a margin of 35%, comparable to the national district statistical average of all 435 districts. Districts 10 and 11 in northern Virginia and the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit, ...

in the Hampton Roads ranged between 16 and 18%. Virginia, like the nation as a whole, had about 73% of its delegation winning by a margin of 20% or more. Districts 4, 7, 5, 1 and 8 ranged from 22 to 32%, and three outliers had a margin of victory of more than 50%: the 9th district at 48%, the 6th district at 62%, and the 3rd district at 89%.

Reform efforts

The Redistricting Coalition of Virginia recommended reforms, including either an independent commission or a bipartisan commission that is not polarized. Member organizations include the League of Women Voters of Virginia, AARP of Virginia, OneVirginia2021 , the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and

Virginia Organizing Virginia Organizing, formerly known as the Virginia Organizing Project (VOP), is a non-partisan grassroots organization in the state of Virginia. Founded in 1995, Virginia Organizing brings people together to address issues that affect the quali ...

. The Independent Bipartisan Advisory Commission on Redistricting for the Commonwealth of Virginia made its report on April 1, 2011. It made recommendations for both state legislative and congressional district redistricting, detailing three options for congressional districts, all improving on the 2001 congressional map by reducing the number of split jurisdictions, defining three districts in the DC metro northern Virginia area, and increasing compactness in each district. In accordance with the

Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...

, it maintained one majority African-American district without packing to dilute community influence in other districts. In 2011, the Virginia College and University Redistricting Competition was organized by professors Michael McDonald of George Mason University and Quentin Kidd of

Christopher Newport University Christopher Newport University (CNU) is a public university in Newport News, Virginia. It was founded in 1960 and is named after Christopher Newport, captain of one of the ships which carried settlers of Jamestown, the first permanent English ...

. About 150 students on sixteen teams from thirteen schools submitted plans for legislative and U.S. congressional districts. The winning submissions for the congressional redistricting were from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

and from the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...

. The "Division 1" maps conformed to the Governor's Executive Order, and did not address electoral competition or representational fairness. In addition to the criteria of contiguity, equi-population, the federal ''Voting Rights Act'', and communities of interest in the existing city and county boundaries, "Division 2" maps in the competition did incorporate considerations of electoral competition and representational fairness. Judges for the cash award prizes were Thomas Mann of the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

and Norman Ornstein of the

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. A ...

. They also created districts more compact than the General Assembly's earlier efforts. In January 2015, Republican State Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel of the 27th district and Democratic State Senator

Louise Lucas Lillie Louise Lucas ( Boone; born January 22, 1944) is an American politician serving as a Virginia state senator, representing the 18th District in the southeast of the state since 1992. Democrats won a majority of seats in the 2019 Virginia ...

of the 18th district sponsored a Senate Joint Resolution to establish additional criteria for the Virginia Redistricting Commission of four identified members of political parties, and three other independent public officials. The criteria began with respecting existing political boundaries, such as cities and towns, counties and magisterial districts, election districts and voting precincts. Districts are to be established on the basis of population, in conformance with federal and state laws and court cases, including those addressing racial fairness. The territory is to be contiguous and compact, without oddly shaped boundaries. The commission is prohibited from using political data or election results to favor either political party or incumbent. It passed with a two-thirds majority of 27 to 12 in the Senate, and was referred to committee in the House of Delegates. In November 2020, Virginia's ballot question #1, a constitutional amendment, moved the power to draw legislative districts to a 16-member bipartisan commission made up of eight legislators and eight citizens.

2016 redistricting

The redistricting of congressional districts prepared by the Virginia legislature, the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 16 ...

, in 2012 was used in the

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and 2014 elections. The redistricting was found unconstitutional and replaced with a court-ordered redistricting on January 16, 2016, before the

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. Gloria Personhuballah and James Farkas claimed that

Virginia's 3rd congressional district Virginia's third congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia, serving the independent cities of Norfolk, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth, and part of the independent city of Chesapeake. ...

violated the ''Voting Rights Act'' by packing black voters into the district for the political purpose of making surrounding areas better for Republican candidates. Following Supreme Court precedent, the Eastern District of Virginia Court found that U.S. congressional districts cannot be gerrymandered by race for partisan gain. In this case, the twisting non-contiguous 3rd district hopped the James River in several places and divided multiple locality boundaries, resulting in 89% majorities for black Representative Bobby Scott (D) while surrounding Republican incumbents enjoyed majorities of 16–24%. Subsequent appeals by Republican lawmakers to the Supreme Court were unsuccessful.

References

External links

OneVirginia2021 About Us
"Making Democracy Work", League of Women Voters of Virginia {{USCongDistStateVA