Virginia vote hands Democrats redistricting edge, triggers GOP blame game ahead of House fight

By Fox News · Fox News

Republicans are pointing fingers after their narrow loss in Virginia's high-stakes congressional redistricting referendum, which could give Democrats a significant boost in the battle for the House of Representatives majority in this year's midterm elections. Even though they were outraised and outspent by Democrats by a nearly three-to-one margin, Republicans came close to sinking the ballot initiative, which gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state's current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. Tuesday's passage of the referendum could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia's congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge. The referendum, which follows President Donald Trump 's push for rare but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states over the past year, still faces a challenge in the state Supreme Court. But if it survives the legal hurdles, Democrats could gain four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms as they try to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority. "We didn’t get the help we needed to sink the referendum," a Virginia based Republican strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News Digital. "National Republicans could have and should have done more." DEMOCRATS NARROWLY WIN CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING SHOWDOWN IN VIRGINIA Another Virginia-based Republican consultant, who was also granted anonymity, said, "It is bit shocking that there wasn’t a little bit more money spent earlier because once you peel back the top layer of the ballot language and stop Trump, the 'yes' campaign had nothing." "If we had a bit more money to educate, I think we could have won more of the persuasion bucket. And then for sure, if we have very well-funded ballot chase program to go turnout low proposition voters in southwest Virginia, a combination of…