Barack Obama has urged voters in Virginia to support plans to allow the state to redraw its congressional map ahead of the midterms.
In a video message shared with ABC News, the former president asked those in the Old Dominion to vote “yes” on April 21 in a referendum on whether to approve a new redistricting plan that could give Democrats four additional House seats following November’s elections.
The plans in Virginia are a counteraction to gerrymandering efforts demanded by President Donald Trump to give the GOP additional seats in states such as Texas and Florida.
Republicans are looking to find any advantage they can ahead of the midterms amid rising expectations that the GOP is going to suffer an electoral wipeout in November, amid intense backlash to Trump’s second term.
“By voting yes, you have a chance to do something important, not just for the Commonwealth, but for our entire country,” Obama said in the video he also shared on social media.
“By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms. By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field, and we’re counting on you.”
Obama’s entry into supporting the redistricting efforts in Virginia comes as polling suggests that “yes” votes are currently holding a narrow lead in the referendum, in which more than one million Virginians have already voted early.
A Washington Post/Schar School poll conducted in late March found that 52 percent of likely voters say they support redrawing the state’s congressional maps, while 47 percent oppose.
“For Democrats, it would be nice to have these four extra seats out of Virginia if this map gets passed,” J. Miles Coleman, a political expert and analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told ABC News.
“But I just think probably something driving enthusiasm on the Republican side is that, from their point of view, this vote probably seems more existential,” he added. “They lost their statewide seats last year in a drubbing. They could very well stand to lose a lot of their federal representation.”
Texas Republicans were hoping to gain five additional seats through their redistricting efforts. However, with Trump rapidly losing support among the key Latino voting bloc he enjoyed in 2024, there is a strong chance they will not even pick up these additional seats come November if the plans are approved.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom spearheaded a campaign to redraw the state’s maps to add five seats for Democrats, essentially wiping out any advantage from Texas’ redistricting.
Florida is also attempting its own redistricting map, which could see Republicans gain as many as five seats in Trump’s adopted home state.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
