Virginia Democrats just pulled off one of the most brazen power grabs in modern American politics. Governor Abigail Spanberger — the same woman who told voters in 2019 that “gerrymandering is detrimental to our democracy” — just rammed through a redistricting referendum designed to hand Democrats 10 out of 11 congressional seats in a state that Kamala Harris won by a measly five points. And the best part? They recruited schoolchildren to help them do it.
Because nothing says “democracy” like having a civics teacher tell your 14-year-old to go home and make sure Mommy votes the right way.
Here’s what happened. Two teachers in Fairfax County Public Schools — a district that apparently thinks “civics education” means “Democrat campaign operation” — sent students home with a mission. Not homework. Not a permission slip. A political assignment: push your parents to vote “yes” on the redistricting amendment. According to Kelly Sadler, writing in the Washington Times, both of her 14-year-old twin sons came home on the same day asking about her voting intentions. The teachers had told them the new maps would be “as fair as they can be” and were needed to “stop Donald Trump at all costs.”
Stop Donald Trump at all costs. That’s what a public school teacher told a room full of teenagers. With your tax dollars.
Let’s be real about what this referendum actually was. The ballot question asked voters whether the state constitution should be amended “to restore fairness in the upcoming elections.” Read that again. They put the word “fairness” right in the question. One voter told NPR: “This is going to lead people to vote yes, 100%, just by reading the question.” No kidding. That’s like asking, “Should we amend the constitution to make puppies happier?” Who’s going to check the “no” box?
And the campaign around it was designed to confuse. The pro-gerrymandering side called themselves “Virginians for Fair Elections.” The anti-gerrymandering side? “Virginians for Fair Maps.” Try telling those apart on a yard sign going 45 miles per hour. That wasn’t an accident. That was strategy.
But back to Spanberger, because we need to appreciate the sheer audacity of this woman. Seven years ago she stood on a debate stage and told voters that gerrymandering was a threat to democracy. She built her entire political brand on being the “reasonable moderate” who opposed partisan map-drawing. Then she got the governor’s mansion, looked at the congressional map, realized Democrats could grab four more seats if they just… redrew it… and suddenly mid-decade redistricting became a sacred democratic principle.
After the referendum passed, she had the nerve to say “voters have spoken.” Yeah, they spoke after being confused by deliberately misleading ballot language, bombarded by contradictory advertising from groups with nearly identical names, and — oh right — after their children were sent home from school as unpaid political operatives.
We need to talk about what those teachers did, because it’s worse than it sounds. These aren’t college professors preaching to 20-year-olds who can push back. These are authority figures standing in front of 14-year-olds who have to sit there and take it. Kids that age don’t have the tools to say, “Actually, Ms. Johnson, that sounds like partisan gerrymandering dressed up in feel-good language.” They go home and parrot what Teacher said. That’s the whole point.
They couldn’t win the argument with adults, so they laundered it through children.
And let’s not forget — the entire scheme was backed by Barack Obama, who crawled out of his Martha’s Vineyard compound to appear in pro-redistricting ads, while simultaneously the opposition ran old clips of Obama saying gerrymandering was bad. The man is literally arguing with himself across competing ad campaigns. That’s where we are.
Here’s the bottom line. Virginia is a purple state. Harris won it by five points. Under any remotely fair map, Democrats might hold 6 or 7 of 11 seats. Under Spanberger’s new maps? They could hold 10 of 11. That’s not representation. That’s a hostile takeover. And they used the public school system as their ground game.
Every parent in Fairfax County should be asking one question: What else are they teaching my kids when I’m not in the room?
Because if they’ll use a 14-year-old as a campaign volunteer without your permission, for free, on a school day — what exactly won’t they do?