“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg demanded an end to redistricting efforts from both sides during “The View” on Wednesday, after Virginia voters approved a redistricting referendum on Tuesday.
The measure could reshape Virginia’s congressional delegation, with national implications as both parties battle for control of the House.
“You know there are good people out there and want to do this, but people don’t want to start running and then get removed because you’ve changed the map. Leave the map alone. Just leave the map alone.
“Let people decide who they want and what they want… You don’t own the government. We own the government,” Goldberg said as the co-hosts brought up Florida, possibly re-districting in response.
Goldberg said at the end of the discussion, “Everybody, stop with the redistricting. Let people win on their own merit. Because cheating doesn’t work. Cheating just makes it worse.”
Goldberg, while discussing the news at the start of the show, wondered where it was going to end.
“Where is it going to end? Because Texas did this, then California said, ‘No, we’re going to do this.’ Now, Virginia said, ‘We’ll ask our people what they want,’ as did the folks in California… California people said, ‘Yeah, we don’t like what’s happening,’ So you can’t, you can’t say, you know, clutch your pearls and go, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe you did this.’”
Co-host Sunny Hostin supported the effort by Democrats in Virginia and said Republicans started it.
“The Republican Party did start this in Texas and didn’t do it by the will of the people. They didn’t have an election. They didn’t put it on the ballot. They did it in the legislature and Texas stole – well, redistricted and took five seats.
“So California, which has the GDP of a small country, basically said ‘I’ll see your five and I’m going to get you five,’ so the Democrats got five. I thought it should have ended there,” Hostin said.
She continued, “But if you look at, then North Carolina got involved and Republicans started little by little chipping away, taking away the will of the people, and now you’ve got Virginia saying, we’re going to take it to the people, not the legislature,” Hostin said, pointing to a likely Democratic advantage in the state. “And I’ve got to tell you when they go low, I think you go to the earth’s crust.”
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The ballot measure passed in Virginia gives the Democrat-controlled legislature — rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.
The referendum, which follows President Donald Trump’s push for mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states, would give the Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms as the party tries to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.