RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Democrats unveiled a proposed U.S. House map Thursday that aims to give their party four more seats in the latest effort to
FILE - The state and U.S. flags fly over the Virginia State Capitol as the 2024 session of the Virginia General Assembly gets underway, Jan. 10, 2024, in Richmond, Va. RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Democrats unveiled a proposed U.
S. House map Thursday that aims to give their party four more seats in the latest effort to fight President Donald Trump’s redistricting push, even as an ongoing legal challenge makes use of that map for the midterm elections far from certain. The map would dilute Republicans’ hold in Virginia’s conservative areas while giving Democrats a better footing in the districts they would like to flip. And it would give Democrats nationwide a boost in the redistricting battle for the House ahead of the November elections. But in January, a Virginia judge ruled that Democrats’ proposed constitutional amendment for redrawing the state’s U.S. House lines was illegal. It was a blow to Democrats’ plan to let voters decide on the amendment in a referendum in April. Democrats are appealing in the case, which appears headed directly to the state Supreme Court. The state is imposed by a court after a bipartisan legislative commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. Earlier Thursday, the state’s top Democratic legislators said they would unveil a map drawn to help Democrats win 10 of the 11 seats. Data from recent past elections attached to the proposal posted online Thursday support that possibility. A congressional primary is currently set for June. Virginia Republicans have rebuffed Democrats’ efforts to redraw the House map, pointing to a recent yearslong push for fair maps in the state. In 2020, voters supported a change to the state’s constitution aimed at ending legislative gerrymandering by creating the redistricting commission. Virginia Democrats, who decisively flipped 13 seats in the state House and the governor’s office last November, have long said that efforts to redistrict the state would level the playing field after Trump pushed to redraw House districts in Republican-controlled states such as Texas. “These are not ordinary times and Virginia will not sit on the sidelines while it happens,” state Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas told reporters earlier Thursday alongside House Speaker Don Scott. “We made a promise to level the playing field, and today we’re keeping our promise.” In other states, the redistricting battle has resulted so far in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and six that Democrats think they can win in California and Utah. Democrats have hoped to make up that three-seat margin in Virginia. Mike Young with Virginians for Fair Maps, a Republican-backed group opposed to the redrawing, called Thursday’s proposal “an illegal, hyper-partisan gerrymander drawn in backrooms hidden from the public” and one “that completely disregards common sense.” Redistricting initiatives are still being litigated in several states, and there is no guarantee that the parties will win the seats they have redrawn. While Virginia’s redistricting push hits hurdles, Maryland lawmakers have advanced a new map that could enable Democrats to defeat the state’s only House Republican, after Democratic Gov. Wes Moore urged them in person to do so, though obstacles remain for enacting such a map there.Robertson reported from Raleigh, North Carolina. Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.Virginia Democrats share proposed US House map despite court ruling against redistricting push RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Democrats unveiled a proposed U.S. House map Thursday that aims to give their party four more seats in the latest effort to fight President Donald Trump’s redistricting push, even as an ongoing legal challenge makes use of that map for the midterm elections far from certain. The map would dilute NEW YORK — In 2015, Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, went on a trip to Washington, D.C. With the help of their friend Jeffrey Epstein, they were able to tour the White House. Allen’s friendship with Epstein has been known for years, but emails in the huge trove of records released by COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado funeral home owner will be sentenced Friday for stashing nearly 200 decaying human bodies in an office building over four years. One of the bodies was the mother of Derrick Johnson. The 45-year-old learned from the FBI that the ashes he had buried behind his home on Maui A Houston doctor has been indicted on charges of falsifying medical records for five patients, making them ineligible to receive a liver transplant, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday. Dr. John Stevenson Bynon Jr. was indicted by a grand jury in Houston last month on five counts of false statements relating to health care matters. Bynon Amazon sales surged 14% during the fourth quarter, helped by strong holiday spending and a better-than-expected growth in its prominent cloud computing unit.COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Derrick Johnson buried his mother’s ashes beneath a golden dewdrop tree with purple blossoms at his home on Maui’s Haleakalā Volcano, fulfilling her wish of a final resting place looking over her grandchildren. Then the FBI called. It was Feb. 4, 2024, and Johnson was teaching an eighth-grade gym class. Chrystal Ortega's tireless dedication recently earned her the WSECU Community Champions Award and a $1,000 grant to further the mission.When Shawn Tibbitts opened Tibbitts FernHill, he was just trying to survive. The small Tacoma restaurant has since earned culinary awards and praise.Wilcox Family Farms is continuing its cherished holiday tradition of giving back by donating nearly one million eggs to food banks across the South Sound region this season.Matthew Ballantyne has transformed that early awareness into action, embodying the organization's mission:"No Kid Sleeps On The Floor In Our Town."Discover Kitsap County’s creative soul: Where Nordic charm meets gothic gardens and ancient traditions thrive Kitsap County is full of wonderfully weird, authentically artsy, and unexpectedly magical corners that make visitors become locals and locals never want to leave.
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