Virginia Outshines California In Political Skullduggery
I & I Editorial Board
April 22, 2026
California Gov. Gavin Newsom must be kicking himself after what Democrats just managed to pull off in Virginia.
Not too long ago, Newsom was bragging about a referendum that “suspended” a constitutional amendment so Democrats could gerrymander five Republican districts out of existence.
But that still leaves four California seats that will likely be occupied by Republicans after the midterms.
And this is in a state that hasn’t seen a Republican governor in 15 years, a Republican senator in 34 years, where Democrats have a supermajority in the legislature, and the state that Kamala Harris won by a margin of 58% to 38%.
The referendum in Virginia, in contrast, will redraw its district boundaries in such a way as to leave just one Republican out of 11 representing the state, where today there are five.
And yet Virginia is hardly as deep blue as California. After all, it elected a Republican governor in 2021 (by a 51-49 margin), had two Republican senators as recently as 2007, and is a state where Harris got less than 52% of the vote to Trump’s 46%.
But through massive party spending, a deceptively written ballot initiative, and, who knows, maybe some election fraud, Virginia did what Newsom could only dream of doing.
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https://issuesinsights.com/2026/04/22/virginia-outshines-california-in-political-skullduggery/
