Ahead of the upcoming midterm elections in November, former President Barack Obama voiced his support for a redistricting effort in Virginia. Democrats are reportedly pursuing the redistricting effort with the aim of potentially flipping up to four Republican-held U.S. House seats
Obama posted a video on his social media endorsing the redistricting effort, with a caption that read, “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy.”
It further mentioned, “Over the past year, several Republican-controlled states have taken the unprecedented step of redrawing their congressional maps in the middle of the decade, and they’ve done it for a simple reason — to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms this fall.”
The post concluded with, “Virginians can respond by making sure your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states. This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall.”
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It should be noted here that the mid-decade redistricting effort had started last year in Texas when President Trump endorsed the same in an attempt to get more Republican favored seats. So far, this effort has led to nine more GOP-friendly seats and six Democrat friendly ones.
Obama’s call for voting in favor of the redistricting effort comes after the state Supreme Court approved the April 21st election where voters would get to decide if they want to go in favor of redistricting or not. Early voting is opening Friday and therefore Obama has chosen the best time to put forward his appeal.
Besides Obama, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger also voiced her support for this effort on Thursday and urged the voters to do the same. In a statement, she said, “Virginians have the opportunity to take action in response to this extraordinary moment in history. That’s why, as a Virginia voter, I’m voting in favor of this amendment.”
However, Obama’s appeal was criticized by Brian Cannon, a member on the advisory board of No Gerrymandering Virginia. It is a group that does not support changing the constitution of the state and had previously worked to create a bipartisan map-drawing commission.
For all the Republicans whose only plan was hoping the Virginia Supreme Court would stop the Democrat’s redistricting take over of the commonwealth — the court is letting it move forward with no plan to stop it https://t.co/XQCwgBfOnl
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) March 5, 2026
According to Cannon, “Barack Obama has never been for fair maps in Virginia. He didn’t help us in 2020, and he’s clearly not for them now.” He then added, “If Democrats can run good candidates and good campaigns, they can win elections. Democrats don’t have to cheat to win.”
Since Obama has a positive history of successfully endorsing a redistricting effort in California last year, it would be interesting to see how voters respond to him this time.
The Trump administration is already going through quite a critical phase, with the Epstein scandal refusing to die down and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem being fired, along with the Iran war situation getting even more tense.
In such a politically tense time, the mid-terms elections are quite crucial and therefore both Republicans and Democrats are trying to ensure that they win the maximum seats.
