Newly proposed maps would split Arlington into two congressional districts as part of a statewide overhaul heavily favoring Virginia Democrats.
The proposal would keep a southern portion of Arlington in the 8th Congressional District, which currently encompasses all of the county and is represented by Rep. Don Beyer (D). This would extend as far south as York County in the Tidewater region.
The rest of Arlington County would be in the 7th Congressional District, currently represented by Rep. Eugene Vindman (D), which is proposed to run west to Augusta County in the Blue Ridge Mountains and south to Powhatan County west of Richmond.
The maps, presented in a news briefing by House Speaker Don Scott (D-88) and Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas (D-18), could give Democrats a potential 10-1 majority in Virginia’s congressional districts. Virginia currently has six Democratic and five Republican U.S. representatives.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signed legislation today (Friday) that would bring redistricting to a voter referendum, if it survives a pending court challenge. For the time being, the effort is paused after a Virginia judge struck down the redistricting effort last week.
Democrats have filed an appeal, which is headed to the Virginia Supreme Court.
“It’s recognizing that Virginia has the opportunity and the responsibility to be responsive in the face of efforts across the country to change maps, that Virginia is moving forward with this temporary and responsive effort to redistrict,” Spanberger said as she signed the redistricting bill.
Lucas said Virginia Democrats pursued redistricting due to redrawn maps in Texas and several other states as sought by President Donald Trump to give Republicans an advantage in congressional midterm elections. Several Republican-led and Democratic-led states have implemented or started mid-decade redistricting.
“Today, we are leveling the playing field,” Lucas told reporters. “These are not ordinary times, and we will not sit on the sidelines while it happens.”
Arlington Electoral Board prepares
If redistricting survives the court challenge, county election officials expect that a special election will take place on Tuesday, April 21, with early voting starting March 16.
“It’s not definitely going to happen. There are still a lot of unknowns,” county elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer said at the meeting.
“We are waiting on further information,” said Kim Phillip, chair of the Electoral Board.
The special election would come on the heels of the upcoming 39th Senate District special election, called to fill the looming vacancy owing to the upcoming resignation of Sen. Adam Ebbin. Early voting currently is taking place, with the election itself to be run on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
A statewide redistricting special election would require Arlington to staff all 54 precincts on Election Day, plus three early-voting sites. It would be the only issue on the ballot.
While two special elections over the course of nine weeks would add to the workload in the small elections office, it is nothing compared to what neighboring Fairfax County has been going through.
Since last fall, Fairfax officials have had to, or are about to, conduct special elections for the 11th District U.S. House of Representatives, two delegate seats, Ebbin’s Senate seat, a Board of Supervisors seat and a School Board seat.
“This has been an incredible year — an unprecedented year,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Rachna Sizemore Heizer (D-Braddock).
Sizemore Heizer would know: In a December special election, she was elected supervisor in Fairfax’s Braddock District to fill the seat of James Walkinshaw, who was elected to Congress following the death of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11).
Sizemore Heizer vacated her Fairfax County School Board seat upon election to the Board of Supervisors. That seat currently is vacant, awaiting results of the March special election.
Kate Hanley, who chairs the Fairfax County Electoral Board, said the multiple, overlapping elections have put stresses on the county’s election office. Despite that, “we’re doing OK,” Hanley told county supervisors at their Feb. 3 meeting.
The office’s staff has been “working around the clock and around the calendar,” Hanley said.
Still, Hanley said one potential concern, a lack of residents signing up to staff polling places during elections, has not materialized. As in Arlington, “there are a lot of people in Fairfax County willing to be election officers,” she said.
Hanley — who served as a Fairfax School Board member, district supervisor and chair of the Board of Supervisors — told the current elected officials that she has a warm spot in her heart for elections held outside the typical November time frame.
“Having won two of them, I appreciate the importance of special elections,” she said with a chuckle.
If an April special election on redistricting is held and the measure passes, other parts of the 2026 election schedule could be impacted.
State primaries typically are held in June, but could be pushed back to late summer if congressional districts have new boundaries. General Assembly members also would have to determine whether to run U.S. Senate and local primaries in June as normal, or delay them to be held concurrently with the congressional primaries.
In Arlington, that decision would impact the race for County Board, where incumbent Matt de Ferranti is being challenged by James DeVita in the Democratic primary.
