In A Big Win For Civil Rights, Courts Move Two Anti-Gerrymandering Cases Forward

by Josh King,
candidate, Virginia House of Delegates

In 2015 I ran for the Virginia House of Delegates and lost by 125 votes – just 1%. I’m running again this year and the Republican incumbent dropped out, making this an open seat and Virginia Democrats' best chance to flip a district from red to blue. This is the first step to winning back the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017 and sending Trump a message that Democrats won’t let him destroy all the things that already make America great.

The second step is redistricting reform. On March 1, 2017, we got one step closer to that.

In a big victory for civil rights, the U.S. Supreme court ruled 7-1 to give plaintiffs another chance to strike down 11 racially gerrymandered Virginia House of Delegates districts.

The ruling came a day after a Richmond court rejected the Virginia Republican Leadership's attempt to dismiss a separate court case that is also challenging Virginia's State House and State Senate map.

If either of these cases ultimately succeed, it will force Virginia to redraw districts and give us a shot at fair representation in the statehouse and Congress. It will take Virginia’s House of Delegates, where Democrats have only 34 of 100 seats despite holding every statewide elected office, and put it back in play.

I support these court cases and non-partisan redistricting reform because voters should pick their Representatives, NOT the other way around. Democrats have won the popular vote in 6 of the last 7 presidential elections. We wouldn’t have a Congress controlled by extreme Republicans if we had fair districts.

You and I both know that its Republican’s control of Congress that makes Trump’s terrifying agenda possible. We need to resist Trump and take Congress back. And to take Congress back we need to win seats like mine, take back statehouses, and end Republican’s systematic gerrymandering of our country.

I hope you’ll stand with me today and donate to my campaign. These court cases make winning back Virginia’s Statehouse a real possibility.