(The Center Square) – Virginia lawmakers will return to Richmond on Monday for a special session announced just days before voters choose the commonwealth’s next governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
Speaker of the House Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, announced the 4 p.m. session in a letter Thursday, saying it will reconvene the still-active 2024 Special Session “to consider matters properly before the ongoing session.”
The letter does not name specific legislation or issues to be addressed.
The timing has drawn political attention as the session falls during the final stretch of early voting ahead of the Nov. 4 election.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin criticized the move Thursday night, writing on X:
“Two thirds of Virginians spoke loud and clear when they codified nonpartisan redistricting into our state Constitution five years ago. Twelve days before our statewide elections, this is a shameless, reprehensible political power grab by Democrat lawmakers desperate for anything to distract from the disastrous Democrat shutdown and Jay Jones’ demented comments and criminal investigation.”
Youngkin later posted a graphic citing Virginia Department of Elections data showing that 65.7% of voters supported adding nonpartisan redistricting to the state Constitution in 2020.
Republican lieutenant governor nominee John Reid echoed the governor’s criticism, writing on X that the law was changed “to make redistricting in Virginia less partisan and more transparent,” and accusing Democrats of “spitting in the faces of the people all over the state who made that change.”
Redistricting is the process of redrawing electoral boundaries to reflect population changes reported by the U.S. Census every 10 years.
In Virginia, the state Constitution gives lawmakers the responsibility for redistricting, but voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2020 to create a bipartisan commission to share that duty.
The commission develops proposed maps for the General Assembly to approve, and if lawmakers or the commission fail to agree, the state Supreme Court sets the final district lines.
However, in a statement Friday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said Virginia lawmakers convened the session “to preserve the option to amend the Virginia Constitution to allow a redraw of Virginia’s congressional map to counter Republicans’ gerrymanders in other states.”
“House Republicans know they are poised to lose the majority because the public is souring on their failed agenda. Faced with this reality, Republicans are resorting to rigging the midterms by ramming through new, unpopular, gerrymandered maps across the country,” said DCCC Communications Director Courtney Rice.
She added that “Virginia’s decision to convene and preserve the right to consider a new map in 2026 is critical in the fight to ensure voters have fair representation,” and commended Democrats for “standing up against Republican attempts to weaken the power, and vote, of the people.”
Republicans responded critically. The Republican Attorneys General Association called it “a desperate Democratic ploy to divert attention from Jay Jones and his recently announced criminal investigation,” referring to it as the “Jay Jones Special Session.”
RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper said, “Instead of calling for Jay Jones to drop out because of his murderous text message and being the subject of a criminal fraud investigation, they’re playing partisan games forcing lawmakers to return to Richmond for a special session that’s a bigger farce than Jay Jones’ ‘community service.’”
