Virginia’s supreme court on Friday ruled that the state cannot use new congressional maps approved by voters to help Democrats gain as many as four new seats in the US House of Representatives, handing Republicans a major win ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The court found that the state’s general assembly did not follow the appropriate constitutional procedure in approving the map, which voters then passed in a referendum last month.

“This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy,” the court wrote in its decision.

The ruling is a setback for Democrats’ efforts nationwide to counter gerrymanders approved by Republican-led states that may oust Democratic House representatives and boost the odds Donald Trump’s allies retain their majority in Congress’s lower chamber in the November midterm elections.

Texas, North Carolina and Missouri have enacted new maps that could gerrymander as many as seven Democrats out of their districts, while voters in Democratic-led California have approved a new map that could cost the GOP as many as five seats.

Republicans cheered the court’s decision, with Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which coordinates the House GOP’s campaign efforts, saying: “Virginia Democrats’ corrupt scheme to rig the map has been crushed in court, restoring fairness and protecting the future of the Commonwealth.”

Joe Gruters, chair of the Republican National Committee, said: “Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose.”

At issue in the case was whether Virginia’s Democratic leaders adhered to the state constitution in implementing the new map, which required setting aside a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2020 that was intended to draw maps that represented the Democratic-leaning state’s partisan makeup.

Virginia’s constitution requires that any amendments be approved by both chambers of the general assembly, then approved again in the session that immediately follows an election for seats in the house of delegates, as the lower chamber of the state legislature is called.

The general assembly’s Democratic majorities first approved the amendment in October 2025, the month before Democrat Abigail Spanberger was elected governor and voters boosted her party’s majority in the house of delegates.

The legislature passed the amendment again in January of this year, and Democrats then debuted the proposed map that could have gerrymandered all but one of the state’s five Republican House representatives out of their seats. In the April referendum, which voters approved the constitutional change, with 52% in favor and 49% opposed.

But Republicans sued, and the referendum result was quickly put on hold as the supreme court considered the case. In its decision, the justices found that “the general assembly passed the proposed constitutional amendment for the first time well after voters had begun casting ballots during the 2025 general election,” noting that early voting began on 19 September, but the legislature approved the amendment only on 31 October.

“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the justices wrote.

Democrats decried the ruling and accused Virginia’s supreme court of overturning the popular will of the state’s voters.

“Today, four unelected judges decided to cast aside the will of the voters,” said Suzan DelBene, chair of the House Democrats’s campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “This is a setback that sends a terrible message to Americans – the powerful and elite will do everything they can to silence you.”

Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said: “The decision to overturn an entire election is an unprecedented and undemocratic action that cannot stand.”

“We are exploring all options to overturn this shocking decision,” he added.

The decision in Virginia comes as Republican-led southern states scramble to redraw their congressional maps following a US supreme court decision that weakened the Voting Rights Act and allowed lawmakers to break up majority-Black districts, whose voters tend to favor Democrats.

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, also last week signed into law a new congressional map that is expected to make it more difficult for four Democrats to win re-election.