A few minutes ago, the VA Senate voted on a party-line basis to approve HJ6007 (after LOTS of bad-faith blathering/bloviating and wild gaslighting by Senate Republicans, who will never EVER say the words, “Trump is trying to destroy our democracy – which is 100% why Democrats are fighting back, obviously!”). Anyway, see below for some highlights from this morning’s debate, including Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg’s superb speech, as well as speeches by Sen. Aaron Rouse, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, Sen. Barbara Favola, Sen. Saddam Salim, Sen. Mamie Locke, etc. And for some more background on all of this, including highlights from this week’s debate, see here.
P.S. Just to be clear, the House of Delegates already passed this, so now we’ll have the specified “intervening election,” then presumably the General Assembly will consider this again in January (and if, as expected, it approves it again, it will then go to voters 90 days or so later – unless courts step in to stop it).
P.P.S. Today’s votes in the VA State Senate illustrated super clearly why voting in Democratic primaries is SO important; imagine if Chap Petersen were still there instead of Saddam Salim? Joe Morrissey instead of Lashrecse Aird???
Powerful speech by VA Sen. Ghazala Hashmi – “America is in crisis and Virginia has the opportunity to respond in this most precipitous moment!” – who hopefully will be elected the next Lt. Governor this coming Tuesday!
VA Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell talks about repeal of redundant code (90-day requirement) that’s not consistent with the constitution, early voting going back to the Civil War, what the Trump administration is doing to our country and our state, how red states have NOT enacted redistricting reform, how the Republican Party isn’t fighting back against government tyranny, how Trump is a tyrant ignoring our constitution, how Trump’s illegal tariffs are a huge tax increase (but no Republicans are objecting), how the right-wing Supreme Court refuses to defend our constitution or rule of law; how “this is a coordinated national strategy [by Republicans] to grab power”; how it’s “not democracy” – or sustainable – to have Democrats win more votes but be locked out of power due to extreme red-state gerrymandering; how “we are arguing that voters should decided who controls Congress”; how when only one side plays by the rules, those “rules become unilateral disarmament”; how Democrats prefer a NATIONAL law to prohibit gerrymandering; how Virginia can not stand by while democracy is dismantled; etc.
Sen. Barbara Favola: “This is a resolution of hope and empowerment” – gives voters the CHOICE to amend the constitution
Sen. Mamie Locke 100% correctly points out that Virginia Republicans would have followed an order from Trump if they had gotten one, and would be busy trying to gerrymander Dems out of existence in Virginia.
Thanks to VAPLAN for her great live tweeting of this morning’s session!
Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, possibly the most passionate SUPPORTER of the redistricting amendment among Democrats in the General Assembly, did an excellent job explaining why he’s voting for HJ6007 – it’s not repealing the redistricting commission, and more to the point, “today we are taking a truly proportional response to an extreme situation – the current outbreak of opportunistic, mid-decade redistricting means that we are in a truly unprecedented, constitutional norm-breaking time…we’ve never had a president threaten and strong arm state governors and legislators for changes to their states’ maps for partisan gains – never, that’s a fact, never! Yet that’s exactly what we are seeing now – because of Trump’s jawboning…the reason is because quote, he’s ‘entitled’ to those seats…But what’s really going on here is fear…of facing voters; the president knows that if 2026 is a fair fight, Republicans will lose seats, and he will face a legislative branch willing to stand up to him and check his power. Those are facts. That is why we’re here. Because [President Trump] is trying to avoid accountability and avoid the voters. And so Virginia Democrats are responding proportionately. We’re not trying to end the practice of fair maps. We are asking the voters if, in this one limited case, they want to assure that a constitutional norm-busting president can’t rig the entire national election by twisting the arms of a few state legislatures which haven’t reformed their process like we have…I think what my friends on the other side of the aisle are really afraid of is that the voters are going to agree with us. For all this talk about the will of the voters, I feel pretty confident that if this thing goes to [the voters], they’re going to pass it…and Donald Trump WILL have to face the music in 2026….This resolution is a break-glass maneuver for a truly unpredecented moment…[but] we’re still circling the drain with Donald Trump and the MAGA movement…”
Sen. Aaron Rouse explains why HJ6007 is necessary, given the Republicans’ assault on voting rights nationally – attempting to gerrymander Democrats out of existence, basically, in the “red” states.
VA Senate Majority Leader Surovell explained several of the major reasons why the redistricting commission is NOT nonpartisan, was designed to fail, would fail again in the future, etc.
Sen. Ghazala Hashmi looks on as Sen. Louise Lucas speaks. Hopefully, four days from now, Hashmi will be elected as the next Lt. Governor of Virginia…
