Virginia Dems Launch Surprise Plan to Stop Trump at Midterms

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1:30Ben Meiselas:Wow. Virginia Democrats just rolled out a surprise plan to do a mid-decade redistricting in Virginia within the next six months to gain three Democratic seats in Congress in Virginia to further check MAGA Republicans' effort to rig the midterms. This is in response, of course, to Donald Trump's efforts across the country to do mid-decade gerrymandering redistricting, which we saw in Texas and Donald Trump is bringing to many other states. We saw that in California, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom put on the ballot Prop 50 for voters to decide if there will be a mid-decade redistricting in California, which would pick up a number of seats for Democrats in California to check what's going on in Texas.

2:27Ben Meiselas:But Virginia Democrats have figured out a path forward there. Now, whereas in California, it required just one kind of special session and meeting of the legislature to take place and then to put it on the ballot. In Virginia, it requires a constitutional amendment. It requires a vote from the people of Virginia, but it requires two meetings to take place of the legislature, and one would have to take place immediately. That means a special session in Virginia's legislature would have to be called. Now, while Democrats control both the House and the Senate, they control the House of Delegates 51 to 49 and the Senate 21 to 19, but to call a special session, you would require two-thirds of the members in each chamber of the legislature to agree to hold a special session.

3:25Ben Meiselas:Now, Democrats don't control two-thirds. So how are they going to be able to call a special session? Well, the MAGA Republican governor, who pretends not to be MAGA, Glenn Youngkin, back in May of 2024, called a special session in order to push through a budget when during a regular session, the various houses in Virginia's legislature cannot agree to a budget. But what happened was Glenn Youngkin forgot to adjourn the special session for May 2024. So because they never gaveled out and formally closed the special session, the Democrats realized there was a procedural error made by Youngkin, and we're still technically in a special session.

4:17Ben Meiselas:So let's convene immediately. Let's take the first of the two votes that are needed to do this mid-decade redistricting. All we need then is a majority in the House and the Senate to which Democrats control. But all Democrats in the House and the Senate need to vote in favor of this mid-decade redistricting. Then you have the elections taking place on November 4th, right? And then the governor, as of now, seems that Abigail Spanberger is going to become the governor, which would be part, I guess, of the overall plan if this takes place. There would be a regular session then convened in Virginia after the November election.

5:03Ben Meiselas:That would be the second time the vote would need to take place this time to then create this ballot initiative. Then you would have to do the ballot initiative. And then what you'd probably have to do is just push back the dates of the primaries, extend those dates in order to accommodate the constitutional amendment, which would change the independent commission in Virginia. Virginia has an independent kind of gerrymandering commission the way that you do in California. So it would require two votes. The way you're going to get one vote now is because Youngkin forgot to gavel out of the special session for May 2024.

5:44Ben Meiselas:The Democrats realize that there'll be an election, there'll be a regular session vote, it'll become a ballot initiative, there'll be a vote on it, and then other deadlines would be extended. Now, this could help pick up three additional seats for Democrats. So between California and Virginia, you would go a long way to check what is going on with Trump's efforts to gerrymander in various other states. So a power move there in Virginia. Governor Youngkin is livid about this. He realized he screwed up by not gaveling out and formally adjoining the last special session. They made this procedural error where they screwed up big time.

6:28So watch Youngkin say, this is nuts. This is nuts. We screwed up, but this is nuts. He's pissed right now, but you shouldn't be pissed. This is what Donald Trump is doing across the country. All Democrats are doing in California and now in Virginia is responding to what Donald Trump did. That's it. If Donald Trump doesn't do this, Democrats don't want to do this. In fact, if you look at the house and the Senate in Congress, Democrats have voted to eliminate partisan gerrymandering. Democrats support the For the People Act. Let's get rid of gerrymandering. Let's get rid of the Citizens United decision.

7:03Let's just have election reform and let's not have big money in elections. And Republicans are the ones who support all of this. So it's obvious where this is coming from. But Democrats need to fight fire with fire. Watch Youngkin whine right here as he realizes what went down. Let's play this clip. And now here they are trying to override the vote of Virginians and take votes away from Virginians in order to drive this crazy political aspiration to make Virginia look like California. You know how every razor promises a smooth shave, but somehow still ends up dulling fast and irritating your neck?

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9:26They described this in a recent article as well. This surprise plan launched by Democrats. Here's how they describe it. In a major surprise, Democrats in the Virginia legislature announced this past week that they'd convene a special session on Monday, likely to consider congressional redistricting. Such a move could result in the state using a new map as soon as next year, before the midterms in the state, and see Republicans lose up to three seats in the state's delegation, which currently favors Democrats six to five. Quote, we're coming back to address actions by the Trump administration. State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surivel told the New York Times' Reed Epstein, who confirmed the story first reported by Virginia Scopes branded Jarvis about the possibility of a special session.

10:15Senator Surville, Democratic leader, didn't directly state whether Democrats would try to revisit Virginia's maps, but political observers believe the topic will be on the agenda. Any response to the GOP's push to gerrymander the lines in red states before the midterms, however, will require speedy action, Democratic unanimity and success at the ballot box on two different dates, as I described. That's because redistricting in Virginia is in the hands of an independent commission, which was enshrined in the state constitution following the landslide vote in 2020. As in California, repealing or modifying those rules would require voters to approve a new constitutional amendment.

10:53That process though is considerably tougher in Virginia. In California, the legislature only needs to vote once to refer an amendment to the ballot. In Virginia, by contrast, lawmakers must approve an amendment twice with an election for the House of Delegates in between. That's why Democrats want to hold a vote before November 4th, Monday, when the vote would be this Monday, when Virginia will host elections for statewide offices like governor and crucially the state house. Remember, that's an Abigail Sipanberger election race where she's expected to win as the Democratic governor. Normally, Democrats wouldn't be able to gather on such short notice since two thirds of members in each chamber of the legislature must agree to hold the special session.

11:33While the governor can also call a special session, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, would never do so to help the Democrats. But as Epstein explains, Youngkin already called the special session for May of last year. That meeting became necessary after the two parties failed to agree on a budget during the regular session, which had concluded a month earlier. Between the two gatherings, both sides hammered out a budget agreement, then passed at the very same day during the special session. That session, however, was never formally adjourned, giving legislative leaders the ability to summon lawmakers back to work whenever they desire.

12:08It's precisely that power Democrats are deploying now. They currently hold a 51 to 49 majority in the chamber, as well as a 21 to 19 edge in the state Senate. So when they meet again, they'll need the support of every member to pass a new amendment. They'll also need to retain control of the House next month, which they appear poised to do. The Senate is not up until 2027. If anything, they're likely to gain seats. Democrats have outraised Republicans better than two to one per ballotpedia and have spent three times as much on the airwaves, according to Add Impact. So if all goes according to plan, the legislature would then need to greenlight the amendment a second time after it assembles for its regularly scheduled session in January.

12:48They'd also need to schedule a special session to put the matter before voters, which under the state constitution could take place no sooner than 90 days later. That tight timeline would almost certainly require the state to delay its candidate filing deadline, which is April 2nd, and likely its June 6th primary as well, to alter the calendar. It goes on to say, Democrats would likely need Abigail Spanberger to prevail in her campaign to succeed Yunkin, and that's expected to happen, which she's favored to do based on public polling and spending data. Should they have the chance to pass a new maps, Democrats could target two or three Republican held districts.

13:30So I think this is a really big deal right here. Now, I've had the opportunity to interview Virginia's Democratic Speaker, Don Scott, and I got his take on the upcoming election. And he described how William Earl Sears, who's running as the MAGA Republican candidate, what she had to say. And she's basically saying that she's fine, winsome Earl Sears. She thinks it's not discrimination if you fire gay people. Here, play this clip. I guess make sense of those clips and then we'll get into what we'll get. We'll have your react. I can't make sense of that. Are you asking me to perform a miracle? I mean, this lady is so unhinged and so out of touch with everything that she says.

14:19I mean, you would have thought it would have been a joke. I was sitting in the room when she said that, you know, she said she wants to fire people because they're gay. And she interrupts her. to, I've never seen anybody interrupt her to say, excuse me, that's not discrimination. And she said that two or three times. I've never seen anything like that in my life. You know, if, if, if you can make sense of it, let me know. I mean, there's some psychiatrist or somebody out there that may be any given help that she needs. But yeah, I'll ask you not as the psychiatrist, but as the speaker of the house of delegates though, when you hear these MAGA Republicans in Virginia, and by the way, including the governor, basically saying things like, it's okay for Virginians to lose their jobs.

15:04It's happened to people before. Why do people make a big deal? We hear the MAGA Republican governor saying it right now. We hear Winston Rose. What's your response to that? I mean, it's sad, and I don't think they're connecting with real people. I mean, the empathy that's required, okay, first of all, you won't stand up to Donald Trump. We know you're all sycophants. You're just going to fall in line, whatever he says. But then the fact that you will not even try to empathize with the people whose lives are being upended. You lose your job. Okay, she's making it sound like this is a job at McDonald's and you've been working there a couple of years, you're in high school.

15:39These are people whose whole livelihoods are built around their employment. They've moved to a region for this job. They're putting kids through college. They're paying their mortgages. They're paying their bills. They're trying to make a life for themselves and their families. They're taking care of elderly parents. To see someone so detached from the pain and suffering that the Trump administration is causing is really sad. And it just tells you that they have no idea what everyday hardworking Virginians are going through. And then when you couple that with, you know, the chief's running with a person on her ticket who's a lieutenant governor who happens to be gay.

16:17So you put all of that together, you start saying these people just you can't make this stuff up. You really can't. I didn't even I didn't realize that fact. She's running with a gay person and she made that comment? She's running. The lieutenant governor, he's gay. And I guess she's going to fire him. I don't know. That is why. Here was another portion of my interview with Don Scott, Democratic Speaker of Virginia. Play this clip. You know, I always say Virginia is for lovers. And I think we're going to send a love letter to the rest of the country that we have not all lost our damn minds. You know, Republicans are focused on one thing in Virginia.

16:50I mean, her whole race is, you know, on, you know, So policing bathrooms, I mean, they're the pee and poop caucus. That's all they do. They police where the kids are peeing and pooping. They're not worrying about where kids are learning and what they're getting out of school. Now, folks, I think it's also important to take a look at the popularity of Proposition 50 in California. The latest poll by YouGov shows that by a margin of 62 % to 38 % people support Prop 50 in California to stop the election rigging by Donald Trump, to allow this mid-decade gerrymandering, this short, this on short notice to take place in California in response to Trump cheating.

17:34Should also be noted that already as of two days ago, three million California votes were already made with Prop 50. That's faster than what we saw in the 2024 general. And also one of the things that we see is turnout is more Democratic than the 2024 election. Net plus 23 Democrat compared to net plus 19 Democrat in 2024. That's a big deal right there as well. And just to remind you about this race, Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate, Congresswoman or Congresswoman against Winsome Earl Sears. Winsome Earl Sears, the Midas Touch Network found this clip of her. And this is the ad that Spanberger made about Winsome Earl Sears.

18:21Play this clip. I'm Abigail Spanberger, candidate for governor, and I sponsored this ad. Mega Republican Winsome Earl Sears. I am speaking. I am speaking. I am speaking. And when she speaks, it gets more disturbing. I can't support abortion. And she talks about violence against those who disagree with her. Murder is murder. And one day it's going to be your turn. Talking about the murder of those who support abortion rights. If Sears said this, what else is out there? Winsome Earl Sears. So far right, she's wrong for Virginia. And we're just to remind you about what went down at the debate with Winsome Earl Sears.

18:55Here, play this clip right here. My opponent has previously said that she does not think that gay couples should be allowed to marry. She has said that she is - That's not discrimination. Well, there you have it, folks. Let me know what you think. But a big move by Virginia, a surprise move that you got to fight fire with fire. And I'm glad Virginia Democrats figured out that loophole. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to six million. We appreciate you. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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