Former President Barack Obama is celebrating Donald Trump’s humiliating defeat in Virginia’s high-stakes political redistricting fight.
Votersnarrowly approveda state-wide referendum on Tuesday that temporarily allows the General Assembly to draw new congressional redistricts favoring Democrats in response to Republican gerrymandering in red states.
Both Obama and Trump hadweighed in on the race, which could give Democrats up to four additional House seats in the November midterms and help counteract expected GOP gains in states like Texas and Florida.
“Congratulations, Virginia! Republicans are trying to tilt the midterm elections in their favor, but they haven’t done it yet,” Obama wrote onX.com. “Thanks for showing us what it looks like to stand up for our democracy and fight back.”
Trump had made a last-ditch plea to voters on Monday and Tuesday,phoning into a tele-rallyand doing interviews withconservative talk showsin a bid to motivate his base to turn out and oppose the redistricting plan.
On Tuesday, he fired off afrenzied poston his platform Truth Social: “VIRGINIA, VOTE ‘NO’ TO SAVE YOUR COUNTRY!”
Obama, meanwhile, had urged Old Dominion voters in a video message to vote yes and “push back against Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.”
Polling showed an incredibly tight race, with the “yes” vote ultimately prevailing 51.5 percent to 48.6 percent.
Trump sparked a national redistricting arms race last summer when he asked Texas for a “simple redrawing” of its political maps to help Republicans pick up five House seats in the midterms.
After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott quickly obliged, California Gov. Gavin Newsom led a successful effort to temporarily suspend California’s non-partisan maps until 2030 to help Democrats pick up five seats of their own.
Source: Drudge Report
