Virginia House Speaker Don Scott Discusses Redistricting Plan

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2:58Ben Meiselas:Louise Lucas. She says, I've got something in store for Texas. Well, what does she have in store for Texas? She says, I will give a follow back to every person who I see tweet 10 to one tonight. By the way, back on November 2nd, 2025, she said 10 to one. Remember when Republicans drew Virginia's congressional maps? So black people were packed into one district and said, we should be grateful. They gave our community this district. Now they can have one district and see how much they love it. Not mints in words there. And then we had the Virginia House Speaker, Speaker of the House of Delegates there, Don Scott, last night talking about how, you know, it's possible you do a 10 to one map right there for the congressional delegation.

3:48Ben Meiselas:The current delegation is six Democrats, five Republicans. We'll see. I mean, you look at Donald Trump and the MAGA approval in Virginia right now, the latest morning consult poll has Trump at negative 12 % in Virginia. And that number just gets lower each one we give. And just so we can show you what the Supreme Court ruled and why I think there is this massive opening for Virginia to do a in-kind gerrymander, an offset, if you will, or perhaps an offset multiple, given that what MAGA wants to do, North Carolina and Indiana, kind of what we saw in Prop 50 in California trying to offset what MAGA is doing.

4:30Ben Meiselas:Just take a look right here. This is the Supreme Court direct language. With an eye on the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, several states have in recent months redrawn their congressional districts in ways that are predicted to favor the state's dominant political party. So the Supreme Court acknowledges that one of those states is Texas, that the purpose of it is to get Republicans elected. And here's what the Supreme Court says. Based on our preliminary evaluation of this case, Texas satisfies the criteria for interim relief. In other words, that the legislative map there is presumed to be accurate.

5:08Ben Meiselas:Why? The Supreme Court says, first, the district court failed to honor the presumption of legislative good faith by construing ambiguous, direct, and circumstantial evidence against the legislature. Heck, the legislator in Texas is like, we're going to make some racist maps. They literally said that. So I'm not really sure where the ambiguity is there. But the Supreme Court says, if the legislature says they acted in good faith. Why is there even a Supreme Court or courts in general to question them? Then it goes second, the district court failed to draw a dispositive or adverse inference against the people challenging the map.

5:43Ben Meiselas:So the Supreme Court said anyone who challenges it, you should automatically basically view them as losing before the case even gets filed. Okay. And then they also say courts shouldn't do anything before an election and we're too close to the midterms. So why even do anything at all? So we're just going to hold up. That's the framework right there. I want to bring in Speaker Don Scott, the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, who we spoke to here before those November elections. You've expanded that majority in the House of Delegates since the last that you said it. You said it was going to happen.

6:19Ben Meiselas:We're going to go there. But first, I got to ask you, Virginia striking back. What are you doing in the legislature right now regarding a response to this gerrymandering that we see in Texas that the Supreme Court says go for it. Well sooner or later, you know, thank you for having me, but sooner or later you have to stand up to the bully on the block. And I think Virginia Democrats made it clear that we're not going to sit on the sidelines while Donald Trump and Republicans in Texas and North Carolina and Missouri and Indiana and not Florida launched this unprecedented mid-cycle redistricting scheme to try to override the will of the people and tilt the midterms in their favor.

6:53Their policies are so bad that they know they have to do something. And we have no choice. I don't think any Democrat wants to be in a position. We are against gerrymandering. We're hoping there's a federal ban on gerrymandering, but we have to level the playing field. We can't pretend that they're playing in a fair manner while we sit aside and yell at them. We have to do something and fight back. And where I came from, if a bully punch you in the face, You can sit around and whine about it. You got up and you fought back. And I think that's what we have to do right now.

7:24Ben Meiselas:So what can you tell us, though, about what that looks like? When does the next when does this happen? Like what's going on? What can you share in terms of what's the next step? I mean, look, you mentioned it's 10 ones, not outside the realm of possibility. The Senate president pro tempore said that she keeps writing 10 to one. So I would assume that means not outside the realm of possibility. Talk to us about that and what happens next. Well, as you know, right now, Virginia's congressional delegation is six, five, six Democrats, five Republicans. And we know we have an opportunity, I think, to take a look at it.

8:01The first thing that we did, you know, what a lot of people like, well, tell us your strategy. You're an attorney. I'm not going to tell you my overall strategy. But I will tell you this. We've taken the first step, which is pass a constitutional amendment. That's what's required in Virginia to allow for a mid 10 year decade, mid decade redistricting. So we've done that. And then we had an intervening election, which is required to pass the same resolution again, the exact same language, which we will do on January 14th. That is the first day of session. That's how important this is. We will do that on the very first day of session and pass the resolution to allow this to become a constitutional amendment that will then go to the voters.

8:41So we have to put this before the voters and probably trying to get it done in April so that we can impact the 2026 elections. We don't have a choice in this matter. This is a requirement and an obligation to be able to protect our democracy from Donald Trump's rampant assault on it. We know that he doesn't care about democracy. We saw that on January 6th. And I think we have an opportunity now to make sure that we level the playing field in light of what he's doing. And I think that process will allow us to do that. And so then once we do that, the legislature will be able to draw those maps and we need to be very clear and concise and make sure it's community-based with some input to be able to get those maps drawn.

9:20And I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to get to a 10-1 map in light of the shellacking that we just put on the Republicans in Virginia this last cycle. Abigail Spanberger won by 15 points. We went from a 51-49 majority in the House of Delegates to a 64-36 majority in the House of Delegates. So I think we have a responsibility to speak up for our voters and protect Virginians from being disenfranchised.

9:45Ben Meiselas:Look, my nephews say it's incredibly cringy whenever I try to do this 6-7 joke, but I like 10-1. 10-1 sounds really much better. That might be the new 6-7. 10-1, baby. I think 10-1 is the next 6-7. So you're moving expeditiously there, but talk about the sentiment right now in Virginia, because when you and I talked last, there was a real affordability crisis. You have all the government workers there. You have health care premiums that are going to spike with the Affordable Care Act subsidies not getting extended. There's this full-fledged assault on the Commonwealth. I mean, it's an outward hostility from the regime against Virginia, and we saw that in the election.

10:30Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about that. Well, you know, when Elon Musk came in with Doge and basically came in with a chainsaw disrespecting these people who have put their life. Many of them are veterans that work in the federal government. So basically had an assault on veterans through the federal government with his work, with coming in with a chainsaw and cutting people's jobs, not only cutting their jobs, but their livelihoods, their ability to take care of their families in a very cynical way, in a harmful way. And I think Virginia sent a message of disapproval. And that is why Republicans were beat so badly.

11:05We won five districts that Donald Trump won and carried in 2024. That is, we won Trump voters back. And I think that's the story that's been missing on this. We won folks who they know that Donald Trump lied to them. He blatantly lied to them when he told them that he would lower the price of everything, that he would lower the price of goods and services. But everything's going up from beef to cars, to childcare, to healthcare, everything's going up. Nothing has come down and people know when they've been lied to. And I think the gig is up for Donald Trump. People see who he is. He's just trying to lie in his own pockets and those of his family.

11:40And Republicans are allowing him and enabling him to do this and they won't stand up. I think what happened is, and what's going to continue to happen is, it's probably not good to be MAGA when MAGA ain't on the ballot. Sooner or later, you have to be responsible. You have to stand up to Donald Trump. The Republicans in Virginia found out that that failed to stand up to Donald Trump for their own constituents hurt them. And I'll watch to see if they've learned any lessons. I think we need a robust, honest two-party system. But right now, the Republicans in Virginia have lost the right to be a good governing partner because, and it's not just me saying this, the voters gave us these huge majorities because they don't believe they have a right to be good governing partners because they've not been able to stand up to Donald Trump in the face of his attacks on Virginia's jobs, Virginia's healthcare and Virginia's citizens.

12:29Right. At some point, some of the things that

12:32Ben Meiselas:are happening are really are not about Democrat, Republican, Independent. It's just like responsible grownup behavior as the floor. And these Trump candidates and Trump, like they're just not behaving as stewards of responsible governance or set that aside. Like they're not behaving like grownups. Like I just sometimes watch their behavior. And I said, look, if a second grader was behaving like this in elementary school, you know, they would probably need to be, you know, called out and saying, you know, that's not how people behave, you know, and that's on a daily basis, the way these MAGA people like just, just act.

13:13Ben Meiselas:It's like, it's just strange, just strange behavior. And it has very dangerous consequences. Yeah. When you, when you see like, you know, Secretary Hicks said, you know, and these other folks, I mean, it's like the meanest people on Twitter who are anonymous actually are now running the federal government. It's like, that's what's going on right now. We have some folks that are running the federal government that have zero empathy for the people that they're supposed to serve. They don't have it. They need to go out and touch grass and deal with some real people because they are so far removed from the struggles of everyday Americans that they have lost sight of what their responsibilities are.

13:44And so I think we have an obligation, Democrats here in Virginia, at least, is to remind the country, you know, we want to be MAPA. You know, we want to make America boring again. You remember when you didn't turn on the TV and your anxiety levels didn't go up? We want to make America boring again. We have competent government, responsive government, and deliver at the end of the day. We want to deliver. It's not just good enough to win. You have to win, and then you have to deliver. And that's what we plan on doing here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

14:09Ben Meiselas:You know, when I read that Supreme Court decision, I will end on this. It seems to be an invitation in a way that didn't exist before, you know, for better or for worse, that the floodgates are open, legislatures, whatever you do, we don't touch. And as long as it's partisanship, in fact, even when Texas, where there was a DOJ letter saying, hey, you got to do this in a way that deals with race and we got to move Hispanics around. And then, you know, and then Abbott were like, yeah, we got to move the Hispanics around. under the, I'm like, I'm like, that's what the judge cited. It's like, what, you know, the federal district court judge is like, you're literally saying some, some pretty race-based things that you're not allowed to say after a nine day trial.

14:53Ben Meiselas:But even there, the most egregious of circumstance, the Supreme court goes, you know what? We ain't touching this. So based on their precedent, when we talk about 10 one or whatever, they seem to be saying until a federal law is passed banning this, go at it. Just do whatever you want to do. I don't think that's a great outcome, but Democrats can't unilaterally disarm. It's can. I'll give you the final word. Yeah, we can unilaterally disarm. I think Supreme Court Justice Kagan said it best when she talked about the Supreme Court has overruled some Trump appointees who said this is racist, it's wrong, and it can't go forward at the district court level.

15:35And they just took a weekend and took a read and overturned all of it and know that they didn't get it right. And so I think we have an opportunity and an obligation, I think, to try to level the paying field to prevent the Republicans from totally manipulating the midterms. We don't have a choice right now. I mean, if you can't figure out where you are in this, and lastly, this is what I'm going to say, spare me the Republicans lecturing us on what we're doing when they won't even say a word about what Donald Trump is doing. They're trying to say, oh, no, Virginia is different, but you will benefit from that.

16:11And so they won't say a word about what's happening in North Carolina and Texas and Indiana and now Florida, but they'll try to lecture us. So spare me the lectures and the fake outrage here in Virginia. We have an opportunity and obligation to make sure that we protect the franchise for voters here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, to make sure that the people who've lost their jobs, the veterans who've been laid off, have a say and will have the ability to push back in the midterms to put a check on donald trump because we know republicans will not anytime mtg is the voice of reason in the republican party you know that train

16:46Ben Meiselas:is off the tracks and thank you for having me great to have you here the 58th speaker of virginia's house of delegates speaker don scott thanks for joining thank you for having me my friend everybody hit subscribe let's get to six million 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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