“90 percent of Virginians aren’t Democrats, that’s true, but about 100 percent of Virginians want election results to be respected. We’re deeply worried that Donald Trump will try to interfere with the election results this November or in 2028, cause we saw him do it before. And we have to have a Congress that will stand up to it. In 2021, all five Republicans in Virginia went along with Donald Trump in his effort to overturn an election result. So we’re giving Virginians a chance to vote, which Republican states have not done, about whether they want to have a Congressional delegation that will stand up against Donald Trump’s tyranny.”
–Senator Tim Kaine (D. Va.), explaining that the redistricting amendment vote was not about fairness, but about standing up to Trump. Because . . . Orange Man Bad.
Today is Election Day in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The question today is whether the Constitution should be amended to permit the General Assembly to redraw the electoral maps. But the decision today is whether Democrats will be able to silence the voices of 50% of Virginians. If the referendum passes, then the liberty and political representation of 1/2 of the Commonwealth will end. Fairfax County will rule the Commonwealth. Power, once gained, will not be voluntarily relinquished.
Below are 2 articles touching on today’s choice. Enjoy.
Virginia Democrats stealing Republican residents’ access to representative government
Gerrymandering raises Civil War-era questions about federal power and rights
BY: Michael McKenna, The Washington Times (April 12, 2026).
For the past few years, this column has argued that the Civil War — had it been only or even mostly about slavery — was unnecessary, the product of incompetent leadership, especially on the Northern side.
Somehow, all the other nations in the Western Hemisphere abandoned slavery in the early and middle 19th century without resorting to bloodshed. Only the United States required a war to settle the question of slavery.
That is, of course, why most thoughtful people understand that the war between the states was really about competing visions of the power of the federal government. Robert E. Lee, the great general of the Army of Northern Virginia, noted that “the consolidation of the States into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.”
Given our circumstances, that seems prophetic.
Lee was pointing out that many in the Confederacy were fighting for something more fundamental than the preservation of slavery; they were engaged in an effort to preserve a constrained federal government. Those on the federal side of things were — intentionally or otherwise — fighting to expand the size and authority of the central government.
Each side was convinced that their beliefs were important enough to justify killing their fellow Americans.
That seems relevant to our current moment in the commonwealth of Virginia. In an effort to confirm every suspicion that people have about them, the Democrats in the Virginia legislature passed — and the new “moderate” governor signed — an aggressive gerrymandering plan that would almost certainly result in the Democrats winning in 10 of the 11 congressional districts in the commonwealth.
At the moment, Democrats represent six congressional districts, while the Republicans represent five. That makes sense, given that the Democrats typically have a 5- or 6-percentage-point advantage in Virginia.
Essentially disenfranchising 30% or 40% of the voters was not enough for the Virginia Democrats, though. They took the extra step and redrew the districts such that the ballast of the vote in five districts would be in Fairfax or Arlington counties and another four districts would be anchored in the urban parts of Norfolk and Richmond.
In other words, it is not just a partisan gerrymander; it is a regional gerrymander. If you don’t live in Fairfax, Arlington, Richmond or Norfolk, then you are effectively robbed of your ability to participate in representative government.
Finally, and most painfully, the most destructive part of this process is that under Virginia law, the redrawing of districts has to be confirmed by a referendum of the voters. In other words, if the half of Virginia voters who do not vote for Democrats lose access to representative government, then it would not be at the hands of rabidly partisan and mostly dim-witted state legislators.
Rather, it would be at the hands of their neighbors, friends and fellow citizens who should know better. No one expects anything from elected officials, but most people believe that their neighbors — people who know them — will exercise prudential and reasonable judgment.
This is how civil wars start. If one set of citizens can and does take away the vote of their fellow citizens for any reason or for no reason, then what does the republic stand for and what does it stand upon?
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Will Maryland and Virginia become one-party states?
Chasing out conservatives any way they can
BY: Robert Knight, The Washington Times (April 12, 2026).
When motorists cross the Potomac River from Virginia via the bridge at Point of Rocks, Maryland, they are greeted by a “Welcome to Maryland” sign with a message from Gov. Wes Moore: “Leave no one behind.”
That might sound good if it meant something like the U.S. military’s daring rescue of the downed jet pilot in Iran this month, but coming from a liberal Democrat such as Mr. Moore, it’s more like a vow to have government reach into every last aspect of people’s lives.
Democrats already control seven of the state’s eight congressional seats, but that’s not enough. Mr. Moore has called for gerrymandering the Eastern Shore district of Rep. Andy Harris, the lone Republican and the chairman of the House Conservative Caucus.
In 2010, Democrats gerrymandered Western Maryland, which had been represented by 10-term Republican conservative Roscoe Bartlett. He didn’t fit into the Baltimore machine’s idea of a congressman, so they got rid of him in 2012. Now they want to finish the job of making Maryland a one-party state like Massachusetts or Rhode Island.
Baltimore is by far the state’s largest city. It was the girlhood home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose father, Thomas d’Alesandro Jr., was a mob-connected three-term mayor. Baltimore’s political culture is a classic urban mix of union power, identity politics, poverty, socialism and high crime.
On the other side of the ledger, it has the Orioles, Ravens, Johns Hopkins University and some first-rate Italian and seafood restaurants. Plus, Fort McHenry and the Chesapeake Bay.
Then we come to education. According to the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program for 2024-2025, only 13% of students in grades three through 12 in Baltimore City schools were proficient in math, and only 31% in English. SAT scores cratered to a new low.
Losing nearly 2,500 students from 2019 to 2025, Baltimore City Public Schools nonetheless added nearly 2,100 full-time staff. Nearby Baltimore County added 531 employees during that period while losing nearly 3,800 students, according to Georgetown University data cited by Heritage Foundation research fellow Corey DeAngelis in The Washington Times.
You might think that parents are getting a better deal because there must be more teachers per student, but the number of teachers in Baltimore County decreased by 53, along with a drop in custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers — the people who directly serve the students. The staffing increase was 267 school bureaucrats, a hike of 21%.
On top of this, a new study by Lending Tree pegs Maryland as the third most expensive state in which to raise a child, trailing only Hawaii and Alaska.
Getting back to Mr. Moore’s promise of not leaving anyone behind, Maryland lawmakers are now taking aim at the state’s faith-based schools, which they don’t control but wish they did.
In March, the state House passed HB 649, which adds gender identity and sexual orientation to anti-discrimination law and applies it to all schools, including private and religious schools. Now in the Senate, the bill would create a private right of action so that leftist groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union or the Satanic Temple can sue faith-based schools that won’t bend their knees to Baal or Baphomet.
The tally was 100 Democrats voting yes and 35 Republicans voting no. Remember this the next time someone insists the parties are indistinguishable.
Once upon a time, Maryland residents who grew tired of the Free State’s leftist rulers could move to Virginia, but that option is closing. Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who campaigned as a moderate Democrat but emerged as a flame-throwing radical upon taking power in January, is pushing a multipronged, left-wing agenda, including tax hikes and gun grabbing.
After stating that she opposed gerrymandering, she threw her support behind a gerrymandering constitutional amendment. It would change the state’s congressional delegation from six Democrats and five Republicans to 10 Democrats and one Republican.
Sounds fair, right? The ballot language actually ensures voters that it would “restore fairness in the upcoming elections.”
Democrats, who say they want to counter Republican partisan redistricting in Texas, ignored constitutional rules by rushing it to the ballot, and the Virginia Supreme Court punted the case until after the election, set for April 21.
Early voting has been underway since March 6. For some reason, Democrats love “Election Month” instead of Election Day. Turnout has been surprisingly strong in rural Republican areas that face disenfranchisement, but the outcome is anyone’s guess.
Although the amendment could well determine which party wins the U.S. House in November, Democrats are outspending Republicans by millions of dollars. That was how they won another Wisconsin Supreme Court seat Tuesday.
Somebody with deep pockets had better wake up.
If Virginia goes the way of Maryland, then where will God-fearing, conservative Virginians and Maryland refugees go next? Joseph R. Biden’s Delaware? Or will they develop a strange new respect for longhorns and gators?
GFK
Observations From The Fifth Estate 