House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spent $100 million trying to unconstitutionally weasel his way to the House Speaker’s gavel.
The Virginia Supreme Court just delivered devastating news to Jeffries and his dream… and torched the tens of millions in cash Jeffries spent to get power.
In a 4-3 ruling Friday morning, the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the Democrat-led redistricting referendum that voters narrowly approved in a special election last month. The court ruled that Democrats clearly violated the Virginia Constitution’s procedural requirements when they forced the measure on the ballot in the first place.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote for the majority.
The decision wipes out what would have been a 10-1 Democrat tilt in Virginia’s congressional delegation, and restores the narrow 6-5 Democratic advantage that will now remain in place for the 2026 midterms and the rest of the decade.
For Jeffries, who needed every seat he could scrape together to flip the House and become Speaker of a Democrat-controlled Congress, it is a catastrophic blow.
Democrats had counted on Virginia to deliver four additional pickup opportunities this fall. Those seats are now gone.
President Donald Trump wasted no time gloating.
“HUGE WIN for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he posted on Truth Social.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters also celebrated the conservative win.
“Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose,” Gruters said. “Today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the rule of law and struck down Democrats’ unconstitutional maps.”
“The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters,” he said. “We took them to court, and we won.”
Virginia law requires that amendments pass through two General Assembly sessions — one before a House of Delegates election and one after. Democrats pushed the measure through after early voting for the 2025 House elections had already begun.
The court ruled that a “general election” includes the early voting period, not just Election Day, which means Democrats entire attempt was a violation of the constitution from the start.
Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore had no sympathy.
“This ruling establishes once again that the Constitution of Virginia means what it says,” Kilgore said.
Democrats were furious. DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene called the ruling an assault on voters.
“Four unelected judges decided to cast aside the will of the voters,” DelBene said. “This is a setback that sends a terrible message to Americans — the powerful and elite will do everything they can to silence you.”
The ruling comes as Republicans are aggressively redistricting across the South in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court decision weakening the Voting Rights Act.
Florida flipped four seats to likely Republican in April. Tennessee approved a new map Thursday eliminating its only Democrat-held district. Alabama and Louisiana are in the process of following suit.
Without Virginia’s four seats, the redistricting wars could give Republicans as much as a 12-seat edge over Democrats heading into November.
Jeffries’ path to power is unlikely survive.