Democrats spent $64 million on failed Virginia redistricting bid

Democrats, already trailing Republicans in midterm fundraising, leaned on a House-aligned dark-money group to push a redistricting plan in Virginia that would have given them four additional seats.

Before voters decided the April referendum, the 10 wealthiest Republican committees held nearly twice as much cash as their Democratic counterparts, Federal Election Commission records show.

Democratic-aligned organizations still spent more than $64 million on the effort. The Virginia Supreme Court later invalidated the process over a procedural violation of the state constitution.

House Majority Forward, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit tied to House Majority PAC, supplied roughly $40 million of that total.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Viet Shelton said House candidates are outraising their Republican opponents and that the DCCC posted its strongest quarter of the cycle.

Mike Smith, who leads House Majority Forward and House Majority PAC, told NOTUS in April that the scale of Republican cash had not yet registered with voters.

At the end of March, the 10 largest Republican committees held nearly $1 billion in cash on hand, compared with about $550 million for the top 10 Democratic committees, according to FEC data.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Marinella said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had spent well north of $55 million on the Virginia effort and a separate California redistricting push.

Jeffries campaigned for the Virginia measure and called the state the “crown jewel” of a national fight over maps.

A spokesman for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is proud of Jeffries and his strategy.

House Majority Forward communications director CJ Warnke said the group matched the $40 million Republicans spent on the referendum and that Virginians rejected the GOP agenda.

Democratic candidates have outraised Republicans in several competitive Senate races, including Georgia, Alaska, Ohio, Michigan and Maine, according to NPR analysis.

Republicans in toss-up House seats raised more on average than Democrats in similar districts during the first quarter of 2026, campaign finance records show.