by WorldTribune Staff, April 22, 2026 Non-AI Real World News

The unified cadre of leftists in Northern Virginia on Tuesday night may have cinched control of the House in the next Congress for Democrats.

A referendum that will redraw Virginia’s congressional districts to give Democrats a 10-1 advantage rather than the current 6-5 division passed with 51.5% of the vote compared to 48.5% who opposed.

The nine counties and independent cities in Northern Virginia, which are home to thousands of anti-Trump leftists who work for the federal government, voted 68% in favor. The region just outside Washington voted 73% for Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger in 2025 and 65% for Kamala Harris in 2024.

On Tuesday, Northern Virginia accounted for just over a quarter of the total vote in the state.

Once again, Republicans in opposition failed to match Democrat fervor for the referendum. Groups in favor of redrawing the maps outspent the opposition $56.4 million to $24.6 million, according to AdImpact.

“‘YES’ won and Donald Trump lost. Virginians spoke with a crystal-clear voice, voting to stop the MAGA power grab and protect the integrity of free and fair elections,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement late Tuesday.

President Donald Trump responded to the outcome with a post to Truth Social:

A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive “Mail In Ballot Drop!” Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory! Six to five goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split. In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of “Justice.” President DONALD J. TRUMP

Betting markets already give Democrats an 85% chance of winning back the House.

“While party leaders insist a third Trump impeachment is off the table, the shift would almost certainly unleash a barrage of investigations and subpoenas aimed at the White House and Cabinet agencies – with major legal and political ripple effects,” Zero Hedge noted. “Lawmakers could also face even more protracted government shutdowns than the record-length appropriations lapses seen in the current Congress.”

After Tuesday’s vote, only one solidly Republican seat remains in Virginia, in the state’s southwest corner. GOP Reps. Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith may find themselves forced into a member-versus-member primary.

Meanwhile, Chad Mizelle, former Trump Administration chief of staff to the Attorney General of the United States and the Department of Homeland Security, wrote in an op-ed on Fox News Digital on Tuesday that Trump himself could destroy Virginia’s gerrymander.

Mizelle noted that back in the earliest days of the Republic, Virginia and Maryland gave a certain amount of land to the U.S. government to create the District of Columbia. The Virginia part of the land, which included Arlington County and the city of Alexandria, remained part of D.C. until 1847, when it was returned to Old Dominion via retrocession.

The reason for the retrocession was to protect slavery in Virginia. Past presidents have considered this retrocession unconstitutional.

Now, Mizelle proposes that Trump issue an executive order proclaiming slavery-motivated retrocession unconstitutional and return Arlington and Alexandria to the nation’s capital.

Mizelle wrote:

So, what can the president and his allies do? Aside from motivating Virginia residents to oppose this power grab, Trump has another tool he can use to “fight back,” to borrow the supporters’ phrase. He could fight fire with fire and choose another type of re-Districting.

In 1790, Virginia and Maryland each gave five square miles of land to the Federal government to create a district for a new national capital. That Virginia land remained part of the District of Columbia until 1847, when it was retroceded to the commonwealth. The shameful reason for that retrocession was protecting slavery in Virginia when the district abolished it.

This became moot after the Union defeated the ancestors of this current effort to rig elections and resist the elected federal leadership in the Civil War. Other presidents, including William Howard Taft, have considered retrocession unconstitutional and wanted to reclaim the land for the district, but the Supreme Court has never been asked to weigh in.

President Trump could issue an executive order declaring the slavery-motivated retrocession unconstitutional, triggering certain legal action, and allowing the courts to finally weigh in on whether the county of Arlington and the city of Alexandria, in fact, properly belong to the District of Columbia.

Mizelle added that this form redistricting is on sound legal footing:

This order would be on better legal footing than many of President Joe Biden’s most egregious orders, such as those imposing an eviction moratorium or forgiving billions in student debt with the stroke of an (auto) pen. As some of the deepest blue areas of the commonwealth – and the country – and loaded with federal government employees, residents of this region should feel right at home as part of D.C.

Virginia’s redistricting effort still faces legal challenges. Opponents have challenged the ballot language as well as the timeline and process of the redistricting bill in the state legislature. The Virginia Supreme Court is still considering whether the legislature broke procedural rules.

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