Virginia Democrats are reportedly so enraged that their dream congressional map got tossed by the state Supreme Court that some lawmakers are now entertaining a move straight out of the progressive hardball playbook: replace the court and ram the map through anyway.
That jaw-dropping idea surfaced during a private weekend strategy session among national and Virginia Democrats after the state’s highest court struck down a congressional map critics blasted as an aggressive partisan gerrymander.
According to The New York Times, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined fellow Democrats on a closed-door call Saturday where lawmakers reportedly vented about the ruling and brainstormed ways to claw back power ahead of the 2026 midterms.
One proposal stood out for its sheer audacity.
“The most dramatic idea they discussed — which would involve an unusual gambit to replace the entire state Supreme Court, with a goal of reinstating their gerrymandered map — drew mixed reactions on the call,” reporter Reid J. Epstein wrote.
Mixed reactions? You don’t say.
Even within Democratic circles, the idea reportedly raised eyebrows. Epstein noted it was “not clear that it would even be viable, or palatable to Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly.” Some Democrats may realize openly flirting with court-packing because judges ruled the “wrong” way is the kind of thing voters tend to notice.
The panic is understandable. The rejected map reportedly would have handed Democrats a commanding advantage in 10 of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts — a political gold mine in a cycle where control of Congress could once again come down to a handful of seats.
Instead, the court stepped in and blew up the plan.
Now Democrats are scrambling.
The Times reported the lawmakers also kicked around ways to flip Republican-held districts under the current map and discussed what Epstein described as a “bank-shot proposal to redraw the congressional lines anyway.
“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,” the report said, citing anonymous sources familiar with the call.
The anonymous leaks painted a party gripped by what Epstein called “desperation and fury” — hardly the language of a movement calmly defending “democracy.”
This is Virginia, a politically divided state where voters have repeatedly swung between parties and where judicial independence is supposed to matter more than whichever side temporarily controls the levers of power.
But increasingly, many on the left appear to operate under a simple rule: if institutions won’t deliver the desired political outcome, then maybe the institutions themselves need to be changed.
First it was calls to expand the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, according to this report, some Democrats are reportedly floating a state-level version after losing a redistricting fight. Funny how “protecting democracy” suddenly starts looking a lot like rewriting the rules whenever Democrats don’t get their way.
