Obama Attempts to Gas Light Virginians into Midterm Coup Scheme He Called a Threat to Democracy Practically Yesterday

Barack Obama spent years after leaving the White House building a reputation as an enemy of partisan gerrymandering.

Now he just recorded an ad urging Virginia voters to hand Democrats four House seats through the most extreme gerrymander in state history.

What Republicans just put on every Virginia mailbox proves he never meant a word of it.

Sixty-Six Percent of Virginians Already Settled This Question

In 2020, Virginia did something that almost never happens in politics.

Both parties agreed to end partisan redistricting.

Virginians voted 66% in favor of a constitutional amendment creating a bipartisan redistricting commission – designed specifically so neither party could rig the maps.

Virginia Democrat Sen. Louise Lucas was on camera that year promising exactly that: "We want a fair, nonpartisan commission to draw the lines."

Democrats won the vote.

Then they saw what the maps actually produced.

Virginia Democrats returned to the legislature in 2025 and passed a new congressional map designed to turn the state's 6-5 Democrat congressional delegation into a 10-1 Democrat supermajority.

Four Republican seats erased.

The Shenandoah Valley carved into pieces so no community can vote as a bloc.

One of those Franken-Districts looks like a lobster with its claws in the Shenandoah Valley and its tail extending all the way up to heavily Democrat Northern Virginia.

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And a bump on that tail gives the game away.

It’s the neighborhood of the far-left NOVA Democrat who Democrats want to win in a new district that conservatives 200 miles away would be forced into

Forty-eight percent of all Virginians moved into a completely different district.

Lucas put her position in plain language when the fight started: "We said 10-1 and we meant it."

The woman who promised a fair, nonpartisan process meant 10-1 all along.

Obama Said Gerrymandering Was Destroying Democracy Right Up Until It Could Help Democrats Win

In 2017 Obama warned audiences that gerrymandering was driving parties further apart and killing common ground.

On X he posted directly: "For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government."

Now Obama has cut an ad for the Virginia "yes" campaign – urging voters to approve the exact map Lucas called 10-1.

He's calling it a fight against Republicans trying to "steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election."

Virginians for Fair Maps didn't let that stand.

The anti-redistricting coalition built a TV ad that opens with Obama's own voice.

Not a narrator.

Not an attack.

Just Obama – from 2017 – explaining why gerrymandering is destroying the country.

Then it shows you what Obama is urging Virginia to do in 2026.

An affiliated group is mailing flyers to Virginia households featuring Obama's own words from X, with one instruction in large block letters: Vote No.

A.C. Cordoza, chairman of Democracy and Justice PAC, made the point directly – nobody can refute the accuracy of the quotes.

Every Virginia Democrat Who Called Gerrymandering Cheating Is Now Caught in the Same Trap

Obama isn't alone in this.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger said in 2019 that gerrymandering was "detrimental to our democracy."

She signed the legislation that created this entire power grab.

House Speaker Don Scott went on record saying manipulating election maps "overrides the will of the people."

He is now championing the most aggressive partisan map in the country.

Rep. Don Beyer said it plainly – "Gerrymandering is cheating."

Lucas offered the clearest window into what Democrats actually believe when she was pressed on the contradiction: "You all started it and we f—ing finished it."

Not a defense of principles.

Not a denial.

Just a confirmation that the commission, the fairness, the bipartisan promise – all of it was conditional on Democrats getting what they wanted from it.

Virginia conservatives didn't build that commission.

Democrats built it and stood on camera promising it was the right thing for everyone.

They weaponized a sense of fairness because Republicans controlled both houses of the legislature at the time and Democrats were worried they’d get to draw the districts.  

The commission was a weapon from the start but now they want to abandon it because they’re in position to use a stronger one.

https://twitter.com/MattWhitlock/status/2031360015575974237

The Election Is Days Away and Republicans Are Winning on the Ground

Democrats have poured roughly $33 million into the "yes" campaign.

Republicans have spent about $3 million.

House Majority Forward – a national Democrat dark money nonprofit – dropped $20 million into Virginia alone.

California and New York and Illinois money is flooding a Virginia ballot referendum to tell Virginians their own constitutional amendment doesn't count.

It isn't working.

Roanoke College polling shows 52% of Virginians would vote against the amendment right now – even though 61% disapprove of President Trump.

That gap tells you everything.

https://x.com/virginiainsider/status/2044884303142691236“>https://x.com/virginiainsider/status/2044884303142691236

Voters are separating their feelings about Trump from whether Richmond Democrats get to tear up something 66% of them voted to protect six years ago.

Former Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares – now leading Virginians for Fair Maps – called this David versus Goliath.

Then he said: "David won."

Early voting returns are proving him right.

Republican-leaning districts are outpacing Democrat-held districts in ballots cast.

The five GOP-held congressional seats are running ahead of all six Democrat-held seats combined in early returns.

Three days before Election Day, Obama cut an ad that reminded every Virginian exactly what this vote is really about.

He just didn't intend for it to work that way.

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Sources:

• Staff, "Obama Urges Virginians to Vote Yes on Redistricting Measure That Could Give Democrats Four House Seats," Fox News, April 18, 2026.
• Staff, "Virginians for Fair Maps airs first TV ad campaign fighting Democrats' partisan redistricting plan," Washington Times, April 6, 2026.
• Staff, "Virginia redistricting referendum becomes fight to the finish," Washington Times, April 1, 2026.
• Staff, "Four weeks before April 21 referendum, early voting shows stronger turnout in GOP-leaning areas," Virginia Mercury, March 24, 2026.
• Staff, "A voter's guide to Virginia's 2026 redistricting push," Virginia Mercury, February 26, 2026.