Senators Mark Warner, Tim Kaine Submit Comments to VA Supreme Court, Arguing Proposed Map “places the heavy weight of change on the three women in the delegation”

Thanks to Sam Shirazi for alerting everyone to this! On December 20, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner sent a letter to the Virginia Supreme Court, with their thoughts on a proposed Congressional District redistricting map (which the VA Supreme Court is now considering). The key points by Senators Warner and Kaine are:

• The proposed map “places the heavy weight of change on the three women in the delegation” (note: those three women are Elaine Luria in VA02, Abigail Spanberger in VA07 and Jennifer Wexton in VA10).
• “The three women in our delegation have served with distinction since being elected and now advocate for the interests of their districts and Virginia on key commissions in Congress.”
• “Although the proposed map makes some changes to each of Virginia’s eleven Congressional Districts, the most impactful geographic changes occur in the three districts currently represented by women. The women representing Virginia’s second and seventh districts would no longer live in the districts that they have now been elected twice to represent under these proposed maps. Additionally, Virginia’s tenth district – also represented by a woman – was significantly redrawn.”
• “This is not intended to be a partisan critique of the proposed maps. We are submitting these comments because we believe it is possible to spread the burden of changing district lines across the entire delegation rather than asking the women in our delegation to shoulder a disproportionate burden.”