Democrat panic as Supreme Court rulings effectively end race-based districting

by WorldTribune Staff, May 12, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

Recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down racially gerrymandered congressional maps in Louisiana and Alabama have Democrats in panic mode as the 2026 midterm elections approach.

As red states in the south one by one redraw their maps to favor Republicans, the Democrat Party is reportedly taking desperate measures to try to get blue state redistricting maps implemented in time for this year’s elections.

Virginia, which had its Democrat-drawn map nixed by the state Supreme Court, is ground zero for this effort, according to The New York Times.

The Times reported on Sunday: “During a private discussion on Saturday that included Democratic House members from Virginia and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, the lawmakers vented anger at their defeat at the Virginia Supreme Court, spoke about a collective determination to flip two or three Republican-held seats under the existing map and discussed a bank-shot proposal to redraw the congressional lines anyway, according to three people who participated in the call and two others who were briefed on it.

“They did not land on a specific course forward, and Mr. Jeffries and the other members of Congress agreed to consult with their lawyers about the most prudent way to proceed, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private talk.”

Those discussions reportedly included replacing the entire Virginia Supreme Court by lowering the retirement age requirement. The move would lower the mandatory retirement age for Virginia Supreme Court justices from 73 to 54, the age of the youngest current justice.

The steps that would follow include meeting for a special session, setting the parameters of the special session, lowering the retirement age of the justices, interviewing and appointing seven new justices, appealing the recent ruling to the new court, and having the court deliberate and approve the new maps.

Virginia state Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell told the Virginia Scope on Monday that these drastic measures will not be happening.

Leftist Gov. Abigail Spanberger told reporters on Monday that she does not support removing the court’s current justices.

Democrat leaders have also suggested that Virginia should appeal the state Supreme Court’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Legal experts have cautioned that path may be a dead end as the Virginia court’s ruling rests entirely on state constitutional grounds.

According to NPR, Republicans are set to flip approximately 13 House seats via their redistricting efforts. Prior to the Virginia ruling, Democrats were set to gain 10 seats through redistricting. The Virginia decision takes four of those off the board.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Alabama decision, which struck down a racially gerrymandered district, would add one more for the GOP’s tally.

The House currently stands at 217 Republicans to 212 Democrats.

In Alabama, a special master hired by a three-judge panel in Birmingham redrew the map for the 2024 congressional elections after Democrats and liberal groups were successful in their initial redistricting legal challenge. The court-ordered map resulted in Democrats picking up one seat in Alabama via U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures in Congressional District 2. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down that map on Monday.

“For too long, unelected federal judges have had more say over Alabama’s election than Alabama voters. That ended today,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said.

“My job in this office was to put the Legislature in the best possible legal position to draw a congressional map that favors Republicans 7-0. My office has never taken the charge of our state motto lightly: We Dare Defend Our Rights. Stay tuned.”

Meanwhile, the CNN generic ballot poll for April showed Democrats’ lead in the midterms dwindling.

“The poll finds registered voters closely split in their partisan preference ahead of the midterms, with 45% saying they’d support a Democratic candidate for Congress, 42% a Republican candidate, and 14% neither,” CNN reported. “Polling on congressional preference this year, including previous CNN surveys, has largely given Democrats the advantage. Voters who aren’t sold on either party’s economic message tend to prefer the Democrats on the generic ballot, the CNN survey finds.”

The same survey in March gave Democrats a 6-point advantage.

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan summed up the midterms thusly:

“I think this election actually comes down … to two sentences, and those sentences are ‘They’re crazy. We’re not.’ And I think we have to highlight that for the American people.”

2026 Contract With Our Readers

  ,

Democrat panic as Supreme Court rulings effectively end race-based districting added by on
View all posts by Editor Two →