By Paul Steinhauser, Charles Creitz | Fox News
发布时间：2026年2月13日 美国东部时间上午11:42
周五，弗吉尼亚州最高法院做出关键裁决：原定于4月21日举行的国会选区重划公投可如期进行。
这一结果对弗吉尼亚州民主党而言是重大胜利。他们正快速推进新国会选区地图草案，若在今年中期选举前通过，将使这个摇摆州新增多达4个倾向自由派的众议院选区。
弗吉尼亚州成为最新战场，佛罗里达州紧随其后。这场围绕11月选举前国会选区重划的激烈斗争，正持续在特朗普总统领导的共和党与民主党之间展开。
共和党人正捍卫其在中期选举中仅存的众议院微弱多数优势，而民主党只需净增3个席位即可重夺众议院控制权。这意味着弗吉尼亚州及其他州的选区重划工作，可能直接决定明年哪个政党掌控众议院。
不过，民主党主导的州议会预计将在未来几天对新地图草案进行最终审批，随后由民主党州长阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格签署生效，但这仍需弗吉尼亚州选民的公投批准。
共和党人此前质疑公投合法性，称民主党在州宪法修正案立法程序上存在失误。上月，一家下级法院曾支持共和党诉求。
但州最高法院此次裁定支持公投，要求选民决定是否将2030年之前的选区重划权从弗吉尼亚州现行的无党派委员会转移至州议会。
“今天的裁决对弗吉尼亚选民而言是重大胜利，”与民主党结盟的”弗吉尼亚公平选举组织”发言人丹·戈特利布在声明中表示，”法院明确表示，本案不会阻碍4月21日公投的推进，弗吉尼亚民众将拥有最终决定权。”
公投提前投票将于3月6日启动。
长期担任共和党州议员的特里·基尔戈尔在展望公投结果时对记者表示：”我们将向弗吉尼亚民众说明这是不公平的、前所未有的，而且坦率地说，我们认为这是违法的。”
周五的公投裁决并不意味着法律争议结束。民主党仍在为其重划选区的合法性辩护，州最高法院可能就相关案件安排听证会。
“去年10月，民主党在最后时刻采取非法手段通过宪法修正案，司法机构已介入调查，最高法院已受理并加速审理此案。法治必将占上风，”弗吉尼亚州参议院少数党领袖、共和党州议员瑞安·麦克杜格尔对福克斯新闻数字频道强调。
共和党指控民主党重划选区是”违宪权力掠夺”。反对该重划方案的共和党联盟组织”弗吉尼亚公平选区联盟”指出：”弗吉尼亚民众曾共同通过两党重划改革法案，将选区绘制权从政客手中收回。现在里士满的政客们想要推翻这一成果。”
共和党全国委员会也将弗吉尼亚州民主党此举定性为”权力掠夺”。
民主党则反驳称，这是平衡共和党在其他州已实施的党派操纵选区的必要举措。
特朗普政府为避免2018年中期选举民主党重夺众议院的局面，去年春季首次提出罕见的中期国会重划选区计划（尽管此前有先例）。其核心目标是在红州重划选区，扩大共和党微弱优势以保住众议院控制权——这是执政党在中期选举常面临的政治逆风期。
特朗普的首个目标是得克萨斯州。去年夏天被问及全国范围内增加共和党倾向众议院席位的计划时，他表示：”得克萨斯州将是最大的受益者，预计新增5个席位。”
得克萨斯州共和党州长格雷格·阿博特随即召集由共和党主导的州议会特别会议通过新地图。
但民主党州议员通过两周集体缺席议会（”拒法定人数”）的方式阻止法案通过，此举激励了全国民主党人。
加州民主党州长加文·纽森是反对特朗普重划选区的主要领袖之一。该州选民去年11月通过第50号提案，暂时绕过无党派重划委员会，将选区绘制权交还给民主党主导的州议会，预计将新增5个倾向民主党的国会选区，以对抗得克萨斯州的重划行动。
这场斗争迅速蔓延至其他州：共和党控制的密苏里州、俄亥俄州，以及共和党主导立法机构的摇摆州北卡罗来纳州，均已根据特朗普计划重划选区。
犹他州地方法院去年年底推翻了共和党主导议会通过的选区地图，批准了民主党支持的替代方案，将新增一个倾向民主党的选区。犹他州共和党人随后上诉至州最高法院，要求阻止今年选举使用新地图。
印第安纳州参议院共和党人12月违抗特朗普指示，否决了州众议院通过的重划法案，这一冲突引发全国关注。
佛罗里达州成为下一个战场。共和党州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯领导的立法机构计划在4月特别会议中重划选区，目标新增3至5个共和党倾向席位。但该计划上周遭佛罗里达州民主党联盟起诉，指控州长及州务卿科迪·伯德未经合法授权擅自调整选举法（伯德将国会候选人资格申请截止日期从4月推迟至6月）。
深蓝州马里兰州民主党也在推动选区重划，可能新增1个倾向民主党的国会席位。但由民主党州长韦斯·摩尔推动的这一计划，正面临同为民主党人的参议院议长比尔·弗格森的反对。
此外，南卡罗来纳州、内布拉斯加州、堪萨斯州和新罕布什尔州的共和党人，以及伊利诺伊州和华盛顿州的民主党人，也在探索重划选区的可能性。
悬在这场重划大战之上的是最高法院，其预计将审理路易斯安那州诉卡莱斯案（Louisiana v. Callais），此案可能推翻《选举权法》关键条款。若保守派大法官支持这一裁决，可能导致全国大量少数族裔聚居选区被重新划分，大幅有利于共和党。
不过，最高法院何时裁决、将如何裁决仍属未知数。
保罗·斯坦豪泽是驻摇摆州新罕布什尔州的政治记者，报道全国竞选动态。
Virginia Supreme Court greenlights referendum in congressional redistricting fight with US House majority at stake
By Paul Steinhauser, Charles Creitz | Fox News
Published February 13, 2026 11:42am EST
In a crucial decision on Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a high-stakes referendum scheduled for April 21 on congressional redistricting can go forward.
It’s a victory for Democrats in Virginia, who are fast-tracking a proposed new congressional map that would give the competitive state up to four more left-leaning U.S. House districts in time for this year’s midterm elections.
Virginia is the latest battleground, with Florida on deck, in the ongoing crucial battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to alter congressional maps ahead of November’s elections.
Republicans are defending their razor-thin House majority in the midterms, and Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to win back control of the chamber. That means the redistricting efforts in Virginia and other states may very well decide which party controls the House next year.
But the proposed map in Virginia, which the Democrat-controlled legislature is expected to give final approval in the coming days, followed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signing it, still needs the approval of voters in the Commonwealth.
Republicans had challenged the validity of the referendum, arguing that Democrats had erred procedurally when the legislature approved amendments to the state Constitution. And last month, a lower court ruled in the GOP’s favor.
But the ruling by the state Supreme Court greenlights the ballot measure, which asks voters to give the legislature, rather than Virginia’s current non-partisan commission, redistricting power through the 2030 election.
“Today’s order is a huge win for Virginia voters,” Dan Gottlieb, spokesperson for Democrat-aligned Virginians for Fair Elections, said in a statement.”The Court made it clear that nothing in this case stops the April 21 referendum from moving forward and that Virginians will have the final say.”
Early voting on the referendum is scheduled to start on March 6.
Longtime Republican state lawmaker Terry Kilgore, looking ahead to the referendum vote, told reporters, “we’re going to make our case to Virginians that this is unfair. This is unprecedented. And, quite frankly it’s against the law we believe.”
Friday’s ruling on the referendum doesn’t mean the legal challenges are over. Democrats are still defending their ability to redraw the maps, and the state Supreme Court may schedule arguments in that case.
“Last October, democrats took an unprecedented step to illegally pass a constitutional amendment at the 11th hour. The judiciary agreed, and the Supreme Court has taken up and fast-tracked the case. Make no mistake, the rule of law will prevail,” Republican state Sen. Ryan McDougle, the Virginia Senate MInority Leader told Fox News Digital.
Republicans charge that the Democrats’ redistricting effort is an “unconstitutional power grab.”
Virginians for Fair Maps, a Republican-aligned group that opposes the redistricting push, has highlighted that “Virginians came together to pass bipartisan redistricting reform — a process that took the power to draw maps out of politicians’ hands. Now, politicians in Richmond want to undo that progress.”
And the Republican National Committee has called the Democrats’ push in Virginia a “power grab.”
But Democrats have countered that it’s a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented in other states by the GOP.
Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.
The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
Trump’s first target was Texas.
When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.
But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.
Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.
That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.
The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.
Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio, and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.
In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.
But Utah Republicans have appealed to the state Supreme Court to block a new court-ordered map for this year’s elections.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention.
Florida’s next up.
Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session in April.
But the bid by DeSantis and Republicans in Tallahassee last week drew its first lawsuit, from a group aligned with Florida Democrats. The lawsuit contends that the governor and Secretary of State Cordy Byrd don’t have the legal authority to reshape election laws, after Byrd pushed back congressional qualifying dates from April to June.
Democrats in solidly blue Maryland are also pushing redistricting, which could result in one extra left-leaning congressional seat. But the effort, pushed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore and green-lighted by state House Democrats, is facing opposition from Senate President Bill Ferguson, a fellow Democrat.
Lastly, Republicans in South Carolina, Nebraska, Kansas and New Hampshire, and Democrats in Illinois and Washington State are also exploring possible bids to redraw the maps.
Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case that may lead to the overturning of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.
If the ruling goes the way of the conservatives on the high court, it could lead to the redrawing of a slew of majority-minority districts across the county, which would greatly favor Republicans.
But it is very much up in the air — when the court will rule, and what it will actually do.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.