Democrats have watched millions of dollars get flushed down the toilet as their attempt to gerrymander Virginia just failed.

After the referendum vote last month, the election was challenged in court. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled, in a close 4-3 vote, that the entire process the Democrats used to redistrict the entire state violated the Virginia constitution, so the entire referendum is null and void.

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday invalidated a new, voter-approved redistricting map, delivering a significant victory for Republicans in the state ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 midterm elections.

“We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia,” the Virginia Supreme Court said in the ruling. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.”

The ballot measure would have given the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through 2030.

It was also expected to yield a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge. Republicans quickly sued to block the effort, prompting the state supreme court to hear oral arguments last month.

Cue the crying by Democrats, who really thought they had this in the bag.

Meanwhile, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, lamented the ruling as one that “put politics over the rule of law,” and said his team is evaluating “every legal path” forward. It was not immediately clear what those steps might entail, however, or if the state might try to kick the case up to the Supreme Court for review.

“This decision silences the voices of the millions of Virginians who cast their ballots in every corner of the Commonwealth, and it fuels the growing fears across our nation about the state of our democracy,” Jones said in a statement. “My team is carefully reviewing this unprecedented order and we are evaluating every legal pathway forward to defend the will of the people and protect the integrity of Virginia’s elections.”

I mean, they even had made the t-shirts to celebrate their win! How dare the courts overturn their victory on constitutional grounds! After all, the court let the vote move forward, so it had to be okay, right???

VA Dems argued the court can't rule on the validity of the process for the proposed partisan gerrymander until after the referendum, assuming that the court would be reluctant to intervene if it passed.

They gambled the entire scheme on that wrong assumption. https://t.co/RB6G0byuHL

— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 8, 2026

They chose… poorly. And the tantruming by Democrats and pundits/journalists (but I repeat myself) is truly a sight to behold. Apparently, they think California rules apply to all states, so the court is being blamed for following Virginia constitutional procedure and law. Insert facepalm here.

This is just extraordinarily dishonest from Tim Kaine, as the VA Supreme Court explained at length. The government in VA—run by Democrats—literally asked the court not to do this, pointing to precedent. It agreed. Now Democrats say it should have done it! https://t.co/Bgwzmx1n6K pic.twitter.com/QwKAejkPJz

— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) May 8, 2026

Lmfaooooooo

Virginia Democrats broke the law. The governor warned them that they were breaking the law while it was happening

Matt Yglesias blames the judges https://t.co/mLwicOaF1q

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) May 8, 2026

Sigh this is a good sign that you didn’t read the ruling.

The ruling says they violated the Virginia constitution. Why would the Florida and Tennessee maps be impacted by the Virginia Constitution?

Maybe it was unwise to have this fight… https://t.co/L1iPh4rfaA

— AG (@AGHamilton29) May 8, 2026

Naturally, the GOP is getting the popcorn and enjoying the show.

“Today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the rule of law and struck down Democrats’ unconstitutional maps,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. “The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters. We took them to court, and we won.”

Trump called the ruling a “huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia” in a post on Truth Social.

He added, “The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

This entire exercise in wasting money is the fault of the Virginia Democrats, egged on by national Democrats. There is going to be a lot of finger pointing in the days to come about who should be at fault for this, and ultimately, the fault will fall on Governor Abigail Spanberger, who could have stuck by her campaign pledge to not redistrict.

…Spanberger achieved a level of infamy that is made more impressive by her utter lack of benefit from breaking her promise to voters to oppose gerrymandering. In the meantime, Virginia Democrats have left many Republican and independent voters completely estranged by the…

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 8, 2026

But the Democrats were just so desperate to gerrymander in order to take the House this year, they forgot that it is a sword that swings both ways. And the Republicans finally realized that, because when Indiana declined to redistrict, the Democrats just kept going. Now that map has a whole lot more potential red on it than the Democrats expected, and that means 2026 will be a whole lot tighter than expected in the House. AND they just wasted millions of dollars in Virginia that could have been spent elsewhere.

There’s going to be a lot of very salty Democrats out in the media this weekend. Make sure you have butter on hand to add to that salt for your popcorn. But the GOP absolutely should not get complacent, because trusting the courts to invalidate entire referendums like this is a dicey proposition. That Virginia Supreme Court ruling was 4 to 3. Think on that for a moment while celebrating, because this could have gone very much the other way.

Featured image via succo on Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license