FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Libertarian Party of Virginia fully opposes the 2026 Virginia Redistricting Amendment (HB1384) as it expands political power at the expense of voters and undermines stable, predictable election rules.
After voters approved the creation of the Virginia Redistricting Commission to limit partisan gerrymandering (ordering equal numbers of Democrat and Republican Members), this new proposal would reopen the door to mid-decade congressional redistricting — allowing the political majority in the Virginia General Assembly to redraw U.S. House districts before the next census and maintain these gerrymandered maps for subsequent elections for our U.S. Representatives; ‘temporary’ does not mean “this one time” and the wording of the bill leaves these maps in place until the next census in 2030.
From a Libertarian perspective:
- Election rules should not change whenever politicians see partisan advantage. The rules of representation should be neutral and predictable, not tools for retaliation or power consolidation. Understanding also that a power wielded by a current majority should expect it similarly wielded by their opponents should they lose their advantage.
- Mid-decade redistricting increases instability. Voters deserve consistent districts for a full census cycle, not shifting lines based on political strategy. Virginia should stand for stable, transparent, and limited government — not reactive redistricting driven by national political gamesmanship.
- Government should limit its own power — not expand it. Allowing legislators to revisit district maps mid-cycle creates more opportunity for political manipulation that oftentimes pits urban majorities directly against rural minorities. These geographic differences translate directly to very staunch personal differences that one Representative is unlikely to be objective with.
- There is a reason the voters overwhelmingly supported (nearly 2/3 of voters across the state) the original redistricting plan (2020) as it brought all stakeholders and interested parties to the table: voters, politicians, judges, strict rules for adoption and most importantly, transparency. This move not only undoes the bipartisan work done by previous General Assembly Sessions but undermines the voters by misrepresenting the Amendment as being necessary to “restore fairness”.
- Libertarians support reforms that reduce self-dealing and protect voter sovereignty. This amendment moves in the opposite direction by giving politicians more discretion over the very districts that determine their careers. To understand how this is obviously a biased tactic, the Governor herself has stated “As early voting begins tomorrow on Virginia’s redistricting amendment, voters should know that Virginia’s approach is different. It is temporary, directly responsive to what other states decide to do, and — most importantly, it preserves Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting process for the future”. Preservation for some arbitrary future is not a justification for ignoring a moral mandate for representative elections today.
- Two wrongs don’t make a right. Responding to gerrymandering elsewhere by empowering more gerrymandering at home only deepens the cycle of partisan escalation. Virginians aren’t here to act as fodder for reactionary checks and balances to alternative political ideologies from other governments. Whether Democrat, Republican or Independent, our local leaders need to be focused inward, toward the betterment of Virginia and not outward reflections of policies enacted by Agencies external to Virginia.
Approved by Libertarian Party of Virginia State Central Committee Officers
