Virginia Republicans charge 'power grab' as Democrat who backed redistricting runs for Congress
Virginia Republicans are taking aim at a Democratic state lawmaker who played a key role in pushing through congressional redistricting in the state and is now running for newly drawn U.S. House seat.
After Virginia Delegate Dan Helmer launched a congressional campaign, some Republican leaders took aim at him for what they call a "power grab."
"I think it does look bad," House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore told Fox News Digital, as he pointed to Helmer's plan to run for Congress. "The whole process looks terrible, because all it is a power grab. We feel the optics are bad."
And the Virginia GOP, in a social media post, argued, "Democrats are so corrupt that they’re anointing nominees from the very people who drew the maps."
THE REDISTRICTING BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE RUNS THROUGH THIS STATE
A 44-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Helmer on Wednesday launched a campaign for the Democratic nomination in Virginia's newly drawn 7th Congressional District — one of four new left-leaning seats that would favor the Democrats if voters pass an April referendum to approve a constitutional amendment greenlighting mid-decade redistricting.
Helmer, who has served in Virginia's House of Delegates since 2020 and is the House Democratic Caucus campaign chair, was one of the architects behind the push last autumn in the state legislature to draw the new map.
Virginia is the latest battleground in the ongoing crucial battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to alter congressional maps ahead of November's elections.
Republicans are defending their razor-thin House majority in the midterms, and Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win back control of the chamber. That means the redistricting efforts in Virginia and other states may very well decide which party controls the House next year.
Virginia Republicans had challenged the validity of the upcoming referendum, arguing that Democrats had erred procedurally when the legislature approved amendments to the state Constitution. And last month, a lower court ruled in the GOP's favor.
But a ruling late last week by the state Supreme Court OK'd the holding of the ballot measure, which asks voters to give the legislature, rather than Virginia's current nonpartisan commission, redistricting power through the 2030 election. Early voting on the referendum is scheduled to start on March 6.
But last week's ruling on the referendum doesn't mean the legal challenges are over. Democrats are still defending their ability to redraw the maps, and the state Supreme Court may schedule arguments in that case. And separately, this week, the Republican National Committee led a new lawsuit to try and block the April referendum.
Helmer, in a campaign launch video, touted his "successful efforts to take on and win against Donald Trump."
And he dismisses criticism from Republicans that his congressional bid is bad optics, noting that after redistricting passed through the legislature, he then recused himself from the process of redrawing the maps.
But the Virginia GOP, pointing to Helmer's two previous unsuccessful bids for Congress, argued the state lawmaker "is a career loser who had to rig the game to have any hope of winning a congressional seat after he lost TWO primaries in 2018 and 2024."
And Virginia Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle told Fox News Digital that the optics of "trying to gerrymander Virginia" are "not good."