Redistricting in Virginia

Here’s how new congressional maps shift voting power in every state

By Janie Boschma, Renée Rigdon, Byron Manley and Ethan Cohen, CNN. Additional reporting and design by Melissa DePalo, Eleanor Stubbs and Christopher Hickey, CNN

Last updated: November 8, 2022

Every 10 years, states redraw the boundaries of their congressional districts to reflect new population counts from the census. Virginia’s new map was chosen by the commonwealth’s Supreme Court after the bipartisan redistricting commission was unable to agree on new lines. The court-appointed special masters drew the congressional map and then the court signed off on it in December 2021. While the map significantly changes district boundaries, Virginia will still be a House battleground.

How the districts voted in 2020, by presidential vote margin in percentage points

Democratic

30+
15+
5+

Competitive

Within 5

Republican

5+
15+
30+

Old map 11 districts

In the old congressional map, there are 5 Democratic, 3 competitive and 3 Republican districts.

Change

Change in Democratic districts: 1+1D

Change in Competitive districts: -2-2C

Change in Republican districts: 1+1R

New map 11 districts

In the new congressional map, there are 6 Democratic, 1 competitive and 4 Republican districts.

How the new map shifts voting power by demographic

Virginia will continue to have 11 seats in the House. White voters represent the majority in seven districts. No group represents the majority in the other four.

Number of White-majority districts
Old Map
7
New Map
7
A chart showing the number of White-majority districts has remained the same with 7.
No group has majority
4
4
A chart showing the number of districts where no group has a majority has remained the same with 4.

The group that represents the majority in each district

White
No group has majority

About the data

Sources: US Census Bureau, Edison Research, each state’s legislature or other redistricting authority, Voting and Election Science Team via Harvard University’s Dataverse

Methodology note: Vote margins for new congressional districts are determined by calculating precinct-level vote totals for each district. If a new district splits a precinct, block-level voting-age population is used to allocate that precinct’s votes to the new districts. Block-level demographic data from the 2020 census is reaggregated into each new district’s boundaries.