President Donald Trump unleashed an unsubstantiated rant about the election in Virginia being rigged after voters in the state delivered a sharp rebuke to him and Republicans.
It was the latest pushback by Democrats across the country to Republican gerrymandering ahead of the midterms after Trump launched the nationwide scramble by pressuring Texas to redraw its congressional maps to help the GOP last summer.
On Tuesday, Voters in Virginia backed the referendum to redraw districts that will allow Democrats to pick up as many as four new seats in the state come November.
“A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in all caps on Wednesday.
“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!” the president wrote.
The ballot measure passed 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, or by more than 89,000 votes. However, there is no evidence of it being rigged or crooked.
Early results in the state typically show Republicans and their causes doing better earlier in the night before the full vote is counted. That’s because Republicans are more likely to vote in person on Election Day and in less populous counties. Their votes are quickly totaled and submitted.
Meanwhile, Democrats are more likely to vote early in-person, by mail, and largely in more populous counties where it takes longer to count their votes.
On Tuesday, the “No” vote appeared to be doing well early in the evening, as expected. Later on, the massive vote totals in northern Virginia, from places like Fairfax County, and around Richmond came in, shifting the final total to “Yes” winning.
The ballot measure allows the state to use newly drawn districts that are likely to give Democrats 10 of the 11 House seats. They currently hold six while Republicans hold five.
“Six to five goes to ten to one, and yet the Presidential Election in November was very close to a 50-50 split,” Trump complained.
But Virginia, like California, was one of the states led by Democrats that rushed to redraw their maps after Republicans pushed through new maps, starting with Texas, supposed to favor the GOP.
Ahead of the election, Trump begged Virginia voters to head to the polls and reject the measure both in a social media post and during a tele-rally on Monday.
However, on Wednesday in light of the results, he claimed the referendum was confusing and voters didn’t know what they were doing.
“In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive,” Trump wrote. “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!”
With the Virginia results, the gerrymandering dash across the country appears to be a wash. Republicans drew maps to help them pick up seats in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina.
Democrats, after putting it to a vote with referendums, will get more favorable maps in California and Virginia. They also fought back against GOP efforts in Ohio and Utah.
The Virginia maps are expected to be challenged in court, and the president is already putting his hopes in the judicial system he regularly bashes to step in.
“Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice,’” Trump wrote.
But Democrats on Wednesday were celebrating the ballot measure’s passage as a victory and argued it was the latest sign that voters are turning against the president and his agenda.
