by Scott Dreyer
Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who is known for his calm demeanor broke the rules and criticized current Democrat Governor. Abigail Spanberger lied about her support of a “yes vote” in the current election for redrawing Congressional boundaries.
Spanberger appeared on March 25 in the commercial and called for Virginians vote “yes” during the current election. On March 26, at 10:00 p.m., her tweet on Twitter/X received only about 2,500 “likes” but nearly the same amount of comments.
On March 25, Youngkin also unleashed , his irate reply towards Spanberger.
This is a lie. A blatant lie. You have also broken your own campaign promises.
This unconstitutional power grab is rigging Virginia’s Congressional Maps and will disenfranchise a million Virginians.
“Virginia, VOTE NO.”
By 10:00 pm, on March 26, Youngkin had received about 29,000 “likes”, which is more than ten-fold the number of likes from Spanberger. Of Youngkin’s 1,700 comment, most of them were supportive.
Youngkin’s vehement accusations that Spanberger is dishonest are justified by at least five facts.
While running for governor of the state in 2025, and portraying her and the Democrat Party to be moderates, she made a promise that she would not support gerrymandering.
In the August 25, 2025 article The Hill cited then-candidate Spanberger’s answer to a query about whether Virginia would pursue a mid-decade redistricting for Congressional seats. “The short answer is no. Virginia has implemented a new system of redistricting by way of a constitutional amendment. This was first used in 2021. “I’ve watched with interest what other state are doing, but have no plans to re-district Virginia.”
Two, Spanberger’s opposition to gerrymandering in 2025 was not a new thing… She had also been against it in 2020.
Spanberger, at the time a Congressman, claimed: “Gerrymandering weakens individual voices in our electorates and is detrimental to democracy.” It should be a priority for both parties to oppose gerrymandering.
Three, Spanberger’s commercial begins with a false pretense.
Spanberger justified her “yes” vote for gerrymandering by claiming that “it is directly in response to the decisions other states make.” The screen displays huge text declaring “Trump’s redistricting war” as the camera pans from Texas to Missouri, Ohio to North Carolina and Florida all in red. It is clear that the claim “Texas initiated it” is intended.
Two Roanoke county residents recently stated that Texas started it when they spoke with a volunteer on the “no’ side. This shows how widespread this message is.
This charge is false in two ways. The word gerrymandering was first used in 1812 . Even in the present day, maps have been manipulated to favor Democrats. California and Illinois are two extreme examples.
In that sense, Texas did not “start” the Democrat gerrymandering, but was rather responding to it.
Spanberger, and those who support the “yes” vote, fail to mention the fact that unlike other states, Virginia’s Constitution prohibits partisan gerrymandering.
Four, Spanberger says the proposed gerrymandering is “temporary.”
Skeptics may argue that any change in government which gives more power to a group than another is ever “temporary”.
Spanberger’s actions are killing Virginia’s “fair” redistricting system.
In 2020, more than 65 percent of Virginia voters – 2,770,489 – approved an amendment to the state Constitution that would ban partisan gerrymandering.
Spanberger, who has endorsed the “yes” side, is now pushing for a different amendment… which is illegal, because it did not meet the 90-day wait period. This amendment would overturn the 2020 amendment, and replace Virginia’s 6 Democrat vs. the 5 Republican seats, with an unbalanced 10 Democrat vs. the 1 Republican seat.
The 2020 Amendment was so popular, it won in all localities of the Old Dominion with the exception of Arlington County (a stronghold for Democrats), where it received 45% of votes.
Spanberger, the “yes” side, and 2,770,489 supporters of the 2020 amendment are now trying to invalidate it.
Many of the negative comments on Spanberger’s post from March 25 were fueled by the 2020 amendment and Spanberger and the Democrats’ desire to undo it.
Twitter user @rleeinva, for example, wrote:
“Excuse me? You don’t work at the POTUS. You work for the People of Virginia.
“We have spoken. You do not listen. You are a selfish person. .”
Then, I added the following visual to show the popularity of the 2020 Amendment to ban gerrymandering.
If the “yes” votes pass, the two Congressional seats currently representing the western half would likely flip from red into blue.
The current Sixth District, which runs from Roanoke to the Shenandoah valley, would be severely gerrymandered. The new district will include left-wing communities around Radford University and Virginia Tech as well as Roanoke City. UVA, JMU and Roanoke City. However, the conservative areas surrounding these institutions would be intentionally cut out. It is likely that a district with a liberal lean would be created to replace the pro-life Ben Cline, who represents District 6, and elect a Democrat pro-abortion. Salem and Roanoke voters would live in the same district with UVA and JMU which are located two hours away via interstate, but in a district that is different from the majority of suburban and rural areas only a 15-minute drive.
On the other hand, many, if not most, of the residents of the counties of Roanoke Franklin Botetourt Craig and Montgomery, would reside in the same Congressional district (9) as the remote Cumberland Gap, in Lee County. This is four hours away. However, they are in a separate district than Roanoke city, the economic and cultural hub of Southwest Virginia. Many people living in these surrounding counties will work in the Ninth District, but reside in the Ninth.
The Fifth District would move to the east, to include Richmond’s western suburbs. This district, which currently covers Central Virginia, from the North Carolina border to Charlottesville, will be moved to the east. This populous area, which is Democrat-leaning, would be moved to the eastern part of the Fifth District, allowing part of suburban Richmond, which is Democrat-leaning, to essentially outvote rural middle swaths of the state.
The Ninth District will continue to cover the far southwest corner of the State and would likely re-elect Morgan Griffith (R), who is pro-life. One Twitter/X user, however, described the proposed gerrymandering by saying that it would “strip mine GOP voters and throw them all in one slaghead at the bottom of the state.”
Summarizing, if we draw extreme lines that put the majority of Republicans in the Ninth District, it would allow the critical mass to Democrats to flip Districts 6, 5, and 1 in our area and the same for Districts 1, 2, and 3 in Eastern Virginia.
The Commonwealth is now in the early voting phase. The deadline to vote is on April 21.
