A federal court redrawing portions of Virginia’s House of Delegates map in a long-running racial gerrymandering case has picked a new configuration that could help Democrats retake control of the chamber this year and imperil the re-election campaigns of two top Republicans.
Judges in the Richmond-based U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia revealed their decision Tuesday night, ordering University of California-Irvine political science professor Bernard Grofman to finalize the district lines the court preferred.
Republicans currently have 51 seats and Democrats have 48 pending the outcome of a Feb. 19 special election. All 100 House seats are up for election in November. If the map survives Republican legal appeals and takes effect, it could tilt five to six GOP-held districts toward Democrats.