Virginia has suddenly taken center stage in the national redistricting wars as Old Dominion Democrats attempt to seize map-making powers back from a nonpartisan redistricting commission that voters approved in 2020. But while liberals croon that their gerrymandering crusade is about “protecting democracy,” the proposed maps highlight a disturbing story about rigging democracy through demographic change.
When looking at the hypothetical new congressional map that would scrap the Commonwealth’s current 6-5 Democrat-Republican split in favor of a likely 10-1 Democrat gerrymander, the first thing that becomes immediately apparent is the immense influence of Northern Virginia (NOVA). Five of the proposed new districts are anchored in densely populated and deeply liberal NOVA before snaking out to gobble up Republican votes in the Shenandoah Valley and other rural areas.
The new map underscores the new political reality in Virginia: NOVA dominates. The state’s shift from Republican stronghold to purple battleground to now becoming a safe haven for Democrats has been almost entirely driven by a population explosion in NOVA. As one commentator noted on X, Republicans controlled nearly half of the state legislative seats based in NOVA as recently as 2015. Now, they control zero.
But this political restructuring has less to do with internal migration and more to do with the mass importation of voters from abroad – part of an intentional strategy by Democrats to weaponize immigration to rig the game against Republicans. In many parts of NOVA, more than a quarter of the population is foreign-born – a trend that has coincided with growing Democrat dominance.
In total, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that of the 76,510 new individuals who entered the state from July 2023 to July 2024, 73 percent (56,155) were immigrants. This continued influx has created more populated suburban districts filled with foreign-born and illegal aliens that have the same or more political influence as a rural district in the Shenandoah Valley, yet these representatives answer to a much smaller pool of American citizen voters. This “population ballast” then justifies the existence of a seat that could otherwise belong to a region with more actual citizens, not just residents with varying degrees of legal status.
Before you dismiss this as a xenophobic conspiracy theory, consider that The New York Times was openly bragging about this development back in 2019. “The fields of Loudoun County are disappearing,” the paper reported. “In their place is row upon row of cookie-cutter townhouses… Unlike three decades ago, the residents are often from other places, like India and Korea. And when they vote, it is often for Democrats.”
“Once the heart of the confederacy, Virginia is now the land of Indian grocery stores, Korean churches and Diwali festivals,” the Times continues. “One in 10 people eligible to vote in the state were born outside the United States, up from one in 28 in 1990. It is also significantly less white.”
This trend has only accelerated since that story was published nearly seven years ago. Now, if Democrats get their way, the NOVA neighborhoods with heavy foreign-born voting populations will control 45 percent of Virginia’s congressional seats – forming the heart of the liberal effort to effectively disenfranchise the vast majority of Republican voters in Virginia.
But what’s happening in Virginia is not new. In fact, Virginia is following a pattern pioneered by California. By being a magnet for immigration while including non-citizens in the Census, California has maintained several extra congressional seats that would otherwise belong to states like Ohio, Missouri, or Alabama.
The core of this strategy lies in the Apportionment Clause. For the purposes of representation, the U.S. Census counts “the whole number of persons in each State.” While the Trump administration is challenging the inclusion of illegal aliens for apportionment calculations, tens of millions of illegals – heavily concentrated in blue states – were included in the 2020 Census.
In this sense, what’s happening in Virginia is just one part of the “California-ization” of the entire country, where high-immigration “sanctuary” corridors are rewarded with more political power for ignoring federal immigration laws.
This is why the battle over the Citizenship Question on the Census was so vital. When the Trump administration attempted to add a simple checkbox asking, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” in 2020, it was met with a wall of litigation. Democrats’ fear was not for illegal aliens who might be deported, but rather for what the data would reveal about just how much power they wield as a result of flouting immigration law.
Moreover, if the government had hard numbers on non-citizens in every district, the legal foundation for “citizen-only apportionment” would be significantly strengthened.
Without that data, the 2020 Census remained a “blind count,” granting an illegal alien in Fairfax County, Virginia, the same political weight as a citizen in Roanoke whose family has lived here for 100 years or more.
Thankfully, the GOP is attempting to stop this injustice, although progress has been frustratingly slow.
Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act, which, if signed into law, would mandate physical proof of citizenship to register to vote rather than relying on the “honor system” flaw in our current voter registration process.
Given that foreign-born and non-citizens account for upwards of 35 percent of the total population in several state legislative districts across Virginia, the SAVE Act could prove to be a vital safeguard, ensuring that the “population ballast” used by Democrats to redraw the maps isn’t further mobilized as an illegal voting bloc.
However, the SAVE Act is only half the solution. America also needs the passage of the Equal Representation Act, which would mandate the citizenship question for the 2030 Census and require the president to exclude non-citizens from the population totals used for reapportionment.
If enacted, high-immigration enclaves would lose their artificial representation advantage, allowing political power to flow back to actual American citizens.
America is at a crossroads. As The New York Times confirmed years ago, the Left views demographic shifts as the key to their political “destiny.” Their strategy is clear: transform the demographics of the United States, use those numbers to inflate legislative power through the Census, and then fight any attempt to verify the citizenship of the people on the voter rolls – while also stifling the deportation of illegal aliens.
If we do not end mass immigration, secure our elections, and restore citizen-only apportionment, permanently blue states like California and the political transformation of regions like Northern Virginia won’t be the exception – they will be the rule.
Adam Johnston is a writer whose work has been featured in The Federalist, The Blaze, and the Daily Caller. He is also the creator of the Substack publication “Conquest Theory” where he regularly writes about politics, history, philosophy, and technology. You can find him on X @adamkjohnston.
It is almost unbelievable to fathom the lengths that the demoncrats will go to, to secure their power. They know they can’t win an election on their merits, so they resort to cheating whenever and wherever and however they can.
Nothing new here. This is the expected action that the Socialist Democrats needed to keep Virginia a “blue” state. This sort of action will continue in every state they end up controlling as they march to the “Socialist States of America”. Like NYC, Virginian voters have doomed themselves while the socialist voters remain blind to reality. This is just another crack that is opening in our nation. As stated before, the upcoming midterm elections will forecast the road that this nation will proceed down. If the sheep remain asleep at this election, the nation will go down a road that it might never recover from.
When you don’t have a platform that appeals to voters and you are uninterested in “representing” you constituents, win elections by cheating. A sound strategy? Works if your country lacks legislators with guts and a moral compass, and when it lacks informed voters. God, please help America.
Call it what you want, but this is just another method of cheating by the Democrats. Despite endless claims by the Democrats and their media whores that they are the majority Party, in fact the Democrats have not had majority popular or voter support since the 1960s, and it has been gradually dropping since. So, one has to ask, how do they win so many elections? Very simple: they cheat. For many decades, the Democrats have been engaging in voter registration and election fraud to an ever greater degree in an ever-increasing number of ways. And the feckless Republicans, who are well aware of what is going on, do precious little about it. We are in so much trouble…
I think the Constitution will need to be amended to do this. An Act of Congress will be overturned under the clear language of 14A.
gerrymandering is a serious an issue for one-sided politics. We need to demand nothing but clean clear voting
51st state needs to be South Virginia.
When politicians, DAs, lawyers, and or judges challenge or reverse what voters have voted for, the penalty should be swift to impeach, fire, disbar, or remove from the bench.
The Virginia D.C. suburbs have been a nascent blue cancer for decades. The tumor has grown to threaten the entire previously solid red state. The new VA governor will welcome and enfranchise illegal aliens, the Dems’ solid new voting bloc. The Republic is in perile.
A couple of issues with gerrymandering, 1) in a state (CA) where over 30% of the registered voters are Republican, how is it not discriminatory to only have ~10% of the house seats in Congress and 2) how is gerrymandering constitutionally allowed when either side is discriminated against. CA is trying to do the same ‘redistricting’ as Virginia to reduce the number of Republican Congressional seats to less than 10%, how is this even remotely legal?
O can’t digest this governor! What a Socialist!
One argument the left uses for fighting voting laws is that the states have the Constitutional right to determine the time, place, and conditions for voting. But nowhere does the Constitution give the States the authority to determine qualifications for being able to vote.
I lived in northern Virginia from 1973 to 2018. My last home was in a small development in Herndon, built and purchased new in 2001. Beginning about 2010, and accelerating there was a huge influx of H1B Visa holders moving in, so by 2018 when I sold and left, of the 110 homes in my development, 80 were owned by Hindu families, each with 3 to 5 kids. Talking to realtors in the area, it was always the same. Purchasers were young families who would have an “Uncle” who owned a “minority owned small disadvantaged business” (aka 8A) usually an IT Service company, receiving set-aside Federal contracts. Uncle was sponsoring these visa holders. He provided the job, the legal help to get in to the country, help with down payments, etc. I’m sure they owed him kickbacks for all these services. They accumulated in NOVA because it’s the center of every IT and Defense Company doing business with the Federal Government. I remember voting and standing behind me was a Hindu and his wife in her sari. He was showing her a Democratic sample ballot, and telling her in Hindi how to vote. Fairfax and Loudon counties were lost to imported Hindus, Prince William to Illegals from Central America. I never saw any significant number of Koreans grouped like the Hindu’s into enclaves.
This wasn’t caused by migration. It was caused by (1) women moving Left, and (2) the fact that most people in NOVA work for the FedGov or its contractors, and they are extremely opposed to Trump’s ideology and program.
God helps those who try their best to help themselves, we have a long way to go in that department. I would like to know how is it possible for them to get away with cheating, when everyone, including themselves knows they cheat.
When are people going to wake up and realize we are NOT a democracy, we are a Constitutional Republic. Hello. Is there anybody out there?
Mass migration into the U.S., courtesy of the 1965 Hart Celler Act and the 1980 Refugee Act has been ongoing for decades with no attempt by either Party to curb the third-world invasion. Every immigrant group pouring into our declining Republic leans Democratic, meaning it is just a matter of time before the U.S. is afflicted with single party political rule.
So what’s the backup plan? Are longstanding American citizens simply going to go into that quiet night without a peep because the system the Founders provided has been weaponized to ensure our destruction?