On April 21st, Virginians will vote on a measure to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional map, which would flip four currently Republican districts, creating ten Democratic seats in the state and leaving Republicans with just one. This measure was created in response to Republican efforts in states like Texas and North Carolina to gerrymander congressional maps with a heavy Republican bias, and it follows a pattern set by California’s Prop 50 in 2025, which was similarly designed to respond by redrawing the state’s congressional map in favor of the Democratic Party.
In light of the upcoming vote on this amendment, there has been plenty of political discourse across Virginia. Television ads, billboards, social media, and even flyers in the mail have been deployed as fronts for politicians to galvanize voters around redistricting efforts, but in recent weeks, voters across Virginia have noticed an increase in flyers with intentionally misleading messaging and imagery.
Flyers with the faces of influential Democratic leaders, including the state’s recently elected governor, Abigail Spanberger, and former president Barack Obama, have been sent out across the state, accompanied by anti-gerrymandering quotations and messaging. One example, as noted by Rappahannock News, is the flyer above that reads, “Say NO to Gerrymandering,” accompanied by a quote from the current governor describing gerrymandering as a detrimental factor to democracy and electoral processes. Users of the social media site Nextdoor have been quick to identify the flyers in their communities and the effective strategy they employ.
Despite the current support that both of these leaders have voiced for the proposed amendment in Virginia to redraw the state’s congressional map, these flyers utilize previous comments denouncing gerrymandering made by both of these leaders. While these flyers may point out an irony in the perceived shift in stance on redistricting to manipulate congressional representation, they do not accurately reflect Spanberger’s or Obama’s current stance on the April 21st redistricting vote.
The flyers state that they are created and sent by the Justice for Democracy PAC, based out of Williamsburg. This PAC is chaired by Republican Virginia Delegate A.C. Cordoza, who lost his seat this past November in the 2025 election cycle. This PAC, alongside Democracy and Justice, which Cordoza also chairs, has been targeted by both sides of the aisle for misleading content and publications.
Both PACs came under fire in March for a campaign that compared the redistricting attempt to Jim Crow laws during segregation in the 1960s. A Roanoke resident, Eve Brown, who received such a flyer reported to her local news outlet, WDBJ, that she found the flyer offensive and was suspicious of the intentions of the person or organization who sent it. Brown commented on the timing of the flyer to WDBJ reporters as well, saying that it arrived on the same day as her early voting ballot.
Her concerns reveal a larger anxiety that Virginians have over these flyers and other misleading claims being released by the Justice for Democracy PAC. A Henrico County Democrats account on Facebook even warned residents about similar claims made about Spanberger and Obama in text blasts, further confusing Virginians as they make their decisions and plans to vote in the upcoming decision.
The Virginian-Pilot, similarly covering the misleading publications produced by Cordoza’s PACs, revealed that the Justice for Democracy PAC has only revealed a singular donation coming from the American Future Fund. This Iowa-based, tax exempt committee is known for targeting Democratic candidates with negative advertisements and receives funding from oil industry billionaires Charles and David Koch.
The “Justice for Democracy” ads on YouTube have become really frequent of late. What’s worse is the ads use Civil-Rights-Era images and images featuring black folks. It’s completely misleading and disgusting. Someone’s face should be associated with the source of these ads, and someone needs to ask them if they were as upset about the Texas gerrymandering as well.
In early voting, I read the full language of the question being asked. Misleading language is not only an advertising issue.
“Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”
The phrase “to restore fairness” surely seems like a one-sided view and meant to confuse what the vote is objectively changing (districts) with a subjective concept of fairness. Whether you are a “yes” or “no” vote, the language is not objective.