District of Columbia Retrocession & Virgerrymandering

 How about a history lesson? 

Up until the 1840s, the District of Columbia was a perfect square. The Washington, D.C. that we know about today lies within the state of Maryland, however, the city/county of Alexandria, Virginia was the other part of the square. In 1846, was the retrocession of the Alexandria area - the Virginia portion of D.C. back to the State of Virginia.

Here's a map I found on Reddit about what D.C. would've looked like if the Retrocession had never happened.

Via Reddit

You may want to know why is this being brought up?

Well, I saw a video from a Dr. Steve Turley talking about this being a possible Pres. Trump move. What if the President figured out how to blunt the influence of the population of Northern Virginia by taking back what used to be the southern portion of D.C. 

He could do this by executive order. However, I could see there being some very ugly legal challenges to that executive order. The main question that might need to be answered here is whether or not the 1846 retrocession was actually legal or even constitutional.

Was the Federal Gov't able to return the Virginia portion of D.C. back to that state? Is Alexandria really in fact under the jurisdiction of D.C. and this still a federal territory?

I've seen mainly opinion pieces on this in addition to this video so no real indication that the President is even considering this as a solution.

However another reason this is being brought up is the recent redistricting referendum in Virginia that was rejected by a state court. Here's what this article form Charlottesville Tomorrow says about the recent ruling

Judge Hurley agreed on all counts with the plaintiffs who brought the case — the National Republican Committee, and a few other GOP groups.

The most sweeping finding is that the General Assembly was not authorized to introduce the amendment during the 2024 Special Session. The joint resolutions calling the special session limited the General Assembly to business concerning budget and revenue, and a few other odds and ends — not constitutional amendments. That means, the judge said, the amendment was void from the start, which in legal terms means it doesn’t exist.

There are other findings, mostly involving timing and procedural issues that the judge ruled the General Assembly violated along the path to get the referendum in front of voters.

A separate, key finding is that the wording of the ballot question itself was “a flagrantly misleading question to the voters” that “does not accurately describe the proposed amendment as it was passed by the General Assembly.” Judge Hurley did not elaborate on what was misleading in his ruling.

That question, those of you who voted might recall, was:

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?

Once Attorney General Jones appeals the decision, a panel of judges on the court of appeals will review Hurley’s ruling.

We'll see if the recent Virgerrymandering effort gains any traction. However, this is a recent edition to a story going back a year in a number of states. Both Republican and Democrat states were adopting measures to do a mid-decade redistricting to ensure partisan advantage in their respective states. That's really what gerrymandering is.

In this case what's at stake in 2026 could just as easily be who controls the House of Representatives and in the many states who are trying to draw their maps accordingly, they want to ensure a majority of Republicans or Democrats. This is what politics has become these days.

Now to go back to Virginia. The new Gov. Abigail Spanberger has proven herself to be a progressive (or very left wing). One of her first acts as Governor was to severely discourage any cooperation with Federal Immigration Authorities. I understand she tried to paint herself as a moderate and only served to go left.

I had until recently always viewed Virginia as a red state and see that's not entirely true. The Old Dominion has voted Democrat in Presidential elections since 2008. And in the past decade the Governor's office have gone back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. In the last decade the Governorship had actually seen successive Democrats take office from Terry McAuliffe (McAwful thanks Rush Limbaugh) to Ralph Northam. Also remember Virginia Governors only serve one term, they can't succeed themselves so if they want another term they have to wait four years and run again. McAuliffe tried it and lost to the most recent Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Now that's not to say I'm really that upset with that. No party should run away with an election anywhere - red or blue state. Every election ought to be competitive, however, I know that's not the reality in a number of states around the country.

With that said, perhaps Virginia is a far more purple state than I realize. Also I got to look up the percentages of this referendum it was really close about 51.5% YES to 48.5% NO according to NPR. And looking at the map of Virginia most of the state appeared to have voted against it and many of the state's cities and population centers voted for it. 

From NPR

That's the dynamics of many states it's like the places where a state's population is located often vote Democrat while the rest of the state especially if it's more rural vote Republican. That's the dynamic here in Illinois for sure.

I wonder what the turnout was for this result to be as close as it had been.

Either way could the reverse "retrocession" happen. Who knows? But the analysis I've heard about is Northern Virginia or the Virginia suburbs around D.C. are largely populated by federal gov't employees (perhaps they might be the so-called "Deep State". How many of these Federal Employees aren't happy with the current P.O.T.U.S.?

Enough to vote in favor of blatant redistricting to elect more Congressional opposition to Donald Trump? As stated already this is what our politics has become currently.