US President Donald Trump has called the referendum won by Democrats in Virginia “rigged”, allowing them to redraw that state’s electoral map and thus win four more congressional seats.
In a post on the Truth Social platform, which he owns, Trump called the victory “dishonest.”
“A rigged election took place last night in the great state of Virginia,” wrote, in capital letters, Trump, who is wont to unleash accusations of election fraud like those – which turned out to be unfounded – for his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden.
“All day long the Republicans were winning, the excitement was unbelievable, right up until the end where, of course, there was a massive absentee ballot count. Where have I heard that before?” he commented sarcastically.
Trump regularly denounces the ability of many states to allow voters to vote by mail and claims that this was one of the main reasons for his defeat, which he does not acknowledge, in 2020. In late March, he signed an executive order aimed at restricting absentee ballots, but Democrats went to court to overturn it.
Tuesday’s referendum in Virginia is seen as a response to the redrawing of the electoral map launched by Trump and Republicans in other states, including Texas.
Today, of the 11 members Virginia elects to Congress, six are Democrats. With the new electoral map, Democrats hope they can increase their congressmen to as many as 10 in the crucial November midterm elections.
Redrawing electoral districts along partisan lines and with absurd geographic boundaries is “old news” in the US electoral system, a tactic called gerrymandering. In 2025, Trump demanded that the leadership of Texas, a Republican-controlled state, redraw the electoral map to win five more congressional seats. Ohio and North Carolina followed suit, aiming to add a few more seats to the presidential camp.
The Democrats responded by moving to redraw districts in some states, notably California and, now, Virginia.
