Virginia House Republicans are hanging their hopes for survival on the state Supreme Court blocking the new congressional map approved by voters on Tuesday night.
Approved narrowly via referendum, the new map nixes four GOP House seats, creating a likely 10-1 Democratic lock. Reps. Rob Wittman (R-VA), John McGuire (R-VA), Jen Kiggans (R-VA), and Ben Cline’s (R-VA) seats have been chopped under the new maps.
Recommended Stories
Only Rep. Morgan Griffith’s seat, in heavily Republican southwest Virginia, is still rated as safely Republican.
Wittman and McGuire expressed hope that the referendum would be struck down by the courts before they had to decide their next move.
“I have complete confidence that this amendment will be struck down by the courts because it is unconstitutional,” Wittman wrote in a press release. “Multiple legal challenges are already underway, including cases before the Virginia Supreme Court, and the final word on this issue is far from settled.”
There are four legal challenges already in play, and the Virginia Supreme Court is expected to have the final say over the legality of the new maps.
McGuire and Wittman filed a challenge to the gerrymandering measure earlier this year by targeting the wording of the ballot question. They argued that language describing the partisan map as an effort to “restore fairness” misled voters about the substance of the referendum.
“I had people come up to me and say, ‘John I voted YES,’ but when I explain to them, they say: ‘Oh, well it said fair,'” McGuire told the Washington Examiner.
Trump won McGuire’s current seat by 5 percentage points over Harris in 2024. Under the new map, his district would be split between three other seats. The new 5th District, composed of Richmond’s western suburbs, would have voted for Harris by 9 percentage points in 2024.
McGuire told the Washington Examiner he had “not made the decisions yet” about if he would run in 2026 and in which district.
“I believe that these results were illegal and unconstitutional,” McGuire said. “I’m praying and hoping the Supreme Court will do their job, but I’m just going to keep representing the people who elected me until I get new information.”
Wittman has already announced that he will run for reelection in November, but in what seat has yet to be made clear. His current district was split into two by the referendum, with both seats being linked to more blue portions of Fairfax and Arlington counties in Northern Virginia.
The redrawn 1st District would have voted for Harris over Trump by 7 percentage points in 2024, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. The constituents of the new 8th Congressional District, which would include Williamsburg and many coastal communities currently represented by Wittman, would have voted for Harris by 17 percentage points over Trump in 2024.
Wittman, who is a strong fundraiser, would likely be an underdog in either seat. Before the referendum, Wittman was seen as a likely contender for the top GOP spot on the House Armed Services Committee.
Kiggans, a former Navy pilot and nurse, is also planning to run again in November.
“My mission remains to hold leaders accountable, to serve the people who elected me, and to once again win the vote in Virginia’s Second Congressional District this November, delivering the commonsense, balanced representation our Commonwealth deserves,” Kiggans wrote in a statement.
Kiggans’s seat is anchored around Virginia Beach and the state’s eastern shore and narrowly voted for Trump by 0.2% over Harris in 2024. Under the new map, the district would take in more urban areas around Norfolk, meaning Harris would have won the new seat by 4 percentage points over Trump.
Although Griffith’s heavily Republican seat is the only one that would largely remain intact, it does take on new territory from Cline’s district, possibly setting up a competitive primary between the two. McGuire could also run in the new seat, which borders his old district. Members of Congress do not need to live in the district in which they run.
Griffith is not sweating a primary just yet, instead hoping that the Supreme Court will invalidate the referendum.
“As a plaintiff in lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of this constitutional amendment referendum process, I believe the Supreme Court of Virginia will overturn the underlying laws, thus invalidating the process,” Griffith wrote in a statement. “While the Supreme Court is making its decision, I will be proceeding to run in the 9th congressional district of Virginia, no matter where the lines will end up.”
BY THE NUMBERS: HOW MANY SEATS HAS EACH PARTY GAINED IN REDISTRICTING?
Last month, the Virginia Supreme Court cleared the way for the special election to take place while litigation continues. A lower court had previously struck down the amendment, as the justices emphasized they were not ruling on the amendment’s legality itself, allowing the election to proceed.
While both Texas and California’s new congressional maps have faced opposing litigation, both have been upheld for the 2026 cycle and possibly beyond.
