Will Virginia Republicans’ get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operation be enough to defeat Democrats’ gerrymandering scheme?
That’s the key question that will be answered on April 21, when commonwealth voters head to the polls to decide the fate of a constitutional amendment proposal that would allow the state’s leftist legislature to redraw Virginia’s congressional map in Democrats’ favor. Early voting has been underway in the state since March 6, with more than half a million votes cast as of Sunday, according to The Virginia Public Access Project.
The proposal before voters seeks to sideline the commonwealth’s bipartisan redistricting commission for the near future, giving the Democrat-run General Assembly the power to effectively gerrymander the commonwealth’s U.S. House districts from six Democrats and five Republicans to 10 Democrats and one Republican ahead of the 2026 midterms.
With the Virginia Supreme Court declining to rule on the legality of the likely unconstitutional measure before the April 21 referendum, the burden has fallen on Republicans to mount an effective GOTV operation to counter the initiative and its deceptive ballot language. After an apparent slow start, it seems such efforts are now up and running throughout the commonwealth.
Speaking with The Federalist, newly minted Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) Chair Jeff Ryer said that the state party is actively working to get Republican-affiliated voters to cast their ballots in opposition to the amendment leading up to and on Election Day.
“Everything we have and every resource to which we have access right now is focused on this referendum on April 21,” Ryer said.
Ryer noted that the state party is coordinating with its 124 Republican unit committees across the commonwealth to ensure they’re “getting the word out [to voters] in their localities” about what’s at stake in the referendum. This includes targeting voters in areas of the state that “are reliably Republican” more “intensely than areas that are not.” The state party is also contacting swing voters and possibly Democrat voters, “depending on the type of Democrat voter [they] are.”
“Finding Republican voters everywhere is important, but turning them out in Republican localities in a situation like this is very important, where turnout is going to drive the result more so than it would in a presidential year when just about everybody turns out,” Ryer said.
When it comes to knowing which voters to target in a state where eligible voters don’t register by party, the RPV is relying on voter data from previous Republican campaigns (such as the Trump and Youngkin campaigns) “where Republican-leaning voters have been identified,” according to Ryer. The party chair said Virginia Republicans are also looking at which electors voted in a past GOP primary and employing modeling that’s less reliable than the campaign data but “that gives us an idea of how people are likely to vote … and helps us to know where to go.”
Along with its individual unit committees, Ryer said the Virginia GOP is providing party activists and volunteers with yard signs and campaign literature, as well as the aforementioned voter information instructing them on “which doors to call and knock [and] where the early voting locations [are].” These efforts also involve coordination with the Virginia Federation for Republican Women, whose members are “actively engaged in a very aggressive postcard campaign.”
Once a prospective voter has been identified, the state party and its local committees track the progress of that voter. According to Ryer, this includes monitoring whether that elector has voted early — either in person or absentee — or has yet to vote, which allows GOP activists and volunteers to adjust their GOTV resource allocation as necessary.
“Fortunately, the State Board of Elections does provide regular updates as far as who has [voted early and] requested absentee ballots, as well as who has turned them in. So, we’re able to fine tune things a little bit” with our targeting operation, Ryer said.
The state party’s GOTV campaign also includes undertaking ballot harvesting, a process by which third parties collect and submit a voter’s absentee ballot on his behalf. Former Attorney General Jason Miyares deemed the practice legal in October 2023.
“We’ll provide any service necessary in order to get a ‘No’ vote cast,” Ryer said.
As part of its GOTV efforts, the Virginia GOP is also working with Virginians for Fair Maps, the chief organization opposing the amendment. Miyares and former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor co-chair the group.
While the two are separate entities, Ryer said that Virginians for Fair Maps “has been generous with the [state] party [by] providing resources such as palm cards and signs and other things to help us get the message out.” He further elaborated that while the state party is focused on voter outreach and contact, the Fair Maps team is managing the “broadcast ads and digital ads and streaming ads.”
The RPV has also received assistance from the Republican National Committee, according to Ryer. The state party chair initially told The Federalist last month that the national GOP had been “nothing but pleasant, and cooperative,” but that he had heard “very little” from them at that point regarding access to adequate funding and resources.
Ryer said that the RNC has since provided the Virginia GOP with the resources needed “to help underwrite our field staff, which we’ve increased and added several members.” He added that these assets have “made a difference in helping us coordinate our activists and really make sure that every community in the state is being touched by our campaign to door knock, phone call, [and get] personalized mail to the voters in those areas.”
“We’re very happy that the RNC has stepped up to provide that assistance,” Ryer said. “Would we like more? Sure. But I’m not going to complain about a vital resource that they’ve already provided at great expense to themselves.”
The RNC did not answer The Federalist’s questions in time for publication.
Beyond the RNC, Ryer said that the Virginia GOP and Virginians for Fair Maps’ GOTV efforts are “kind of the only game in town” at the moment, but noted that “bit by bit, national groups are getting involved.”
The RPV chair credited the National Federation of Republican Women for “stepp[ing] in” to help its Virginia wing with its campaign against the amendment. He also cited a “Stop the Gerrymandering Town Hall” Turning Point Action event at Regent University on March 27. The conservative organization notably conducted a “Chase the Vote” initiative to chase Republican-favorable ballots in battleground states during the 2024 election cycle.
Turning Point Action did not respond to The Federalist’s requests for comment on whether it’s conducting similar operations in Virginia to combat Democrats’ gerrymandering amendment. The Virginia Federation of Republican Women also did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment.
Show Me the Money
One of the major challenges Republicans face in their bid to stave off Virginia Democrats’ gerrymandering scheme is the enormous influx of cash into the state from left-wing organizations and donors.
The New York Times reported last week that the Democrat-aligned Virginians for Fair Elections has received more than $33 million in support of the initiative, “mostly from dark-money groups that are not required to disclose their donors.” The Virginia Public Access Project’s most recent figures show that number to be even higher ($38.3 million).
Among the leftist group’s top donors are the Hakeem Jeffries-tied House Majority Forward ($20 million), the Fairness Project ($10 million), and the Soros-linked Fund for Policy Reform Inc. ($5 million).
Meanwhile, Virginians for Fair Maps has only received roughly $3 million.
This major cash disadvantage has become evident in the advertising arena, in which Virginians for Fair Elections has reportedly outspent Virginians for Fair Maps by a 14-1 margin. Featuring notable Democrat figures like Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and former President Barack Obama, the Virginians for Fair Elections ads parrot the ballot measure’s misleading “fairness” language to deceive voters into backing an amendment that effectively disenfranchises millions of Virginians.
When pressed on how the Virginia GOP’s GOTV strategy seeks to overcome this major money disadvantage with the resources it possesses, Ryer said, “What we’re doing is the type of personal neighbor-to-neighbor-contact to spread the correct information [about the amendment] because so much of the Democrats’ campaign has been based on highly misleading advertising.”
The Virginia Republican Party chair added that Spanberger’s past remarks opposing gerrymandering also represent a key part of this messaging strategy. He said that “billboards and large signs … have gone up highlighting” how she “was against gerrymandering before she was for it.”
[READ: Left-Wing Propagandists Send Virginians Fake ‘Newspaper’ Promoting Democrat Gerrymander]
The involvement of high-profile Democrats like Spanberger and Obama has prompted criticisms regarding the whereabouts of notable GOP figures to campaign against the amendment. Most notably, former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Ryer told The Federalist that Youngkin is planning to hold rally tour stops to oppose the measure in Southwest and Southern Virginia from April 10-11, with details forthcoming. These are areas “where we need a very large vote,” Ryer said.
The Virginia GOP chair also said Youngkin made a “substantial donation” to the Virginians for Fair Maps Committee to oppose the amendment. (The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak reported on March 20, “Youngkin has not given any of his personal wealth to the redistricting effort; his PAC sent $100k, an aide told me.”)
Youngkin took to X last week to criticize a video post by Spanberger that encouraged Virginians to support the redistricting amendment. Addressing Spanberger’s claims that Democrats’ proposal “preserves Virginia’s fair redistricting process,” the former governor wrote, “This is a lie. A blatant lie. Not to mention a complete reversal of your campaign promises. This unconstitutional power grab will permanently rig Virginia’s Congressional maps and disenfranchise millions of Virginians. Virginia, VOTE NO.”
Youngkin did not respond to a request for comment sent to his Spirit of Virginia PAC.
Vote Like There’s No Tomorrow
Yet, even with their allies flush with cash, it remains unclear whether Democrats’ deception campaign will prove successful.
As The Federalist’s Matt Kittle reported last week, “Virginia and national Democrats [are] feeling a bit anxious with less than a month to go before Election Day” about the initiative’s prospects for passing. Those concerns potentially stem from early voting numbers appearing to favor Republicans, as well as recent polling indicating a plurality of likely voters oppose the initiative when accurately informed of what it would do.
Echoing Virginia GOP General Counsel Chris Marston’s remarks to Kittle, Ryer said that he and his team are “really happy with what we are seeing so far” in early voting and that “Republican areas are turning out in disproportionate numbers to Democratic ones, by and large.” With that being said, he cautioned that “there’s always room for improvement.”
“We are targeting those areas where we think we are doing OK, but not as well as we can be, and we’re making a concerted effort to get those areas online and active and get those voters,” Ryer said.
[READ: Majority Of Virginians Oppose Dems’ Gerrymander, But It’s Up To GOP To Get Out The Vote]
The Virginia GOP chair noted that one of the major obstacles for any Republican-led GOTV effort is that GOP voters, “by and large, like to vote on Election Day.” He said that the state party is “doing everything [it] can to get as many Republicans as possible to vote, either by mail or in person, before April 21 to make sure that [Republicans] negate the Democrats’ usual massive edge in those areas.”
When pressed on whether the Virginia GOP’s GOTV operation has any specific vote-total goals, Ryer said the party is “looking at more percentage” and comparing current turnout figures to those from previous elections to measure its level of success in turning out Republican-leaning voters. So far, he noted, Republicans are “tracking better than we tracked in 2024 and way better than we tracked in 2025.”
Although early signs may seem promising for Republicans, Ryer concluded his remarks by warning Virginians not to leave anything to chance. He emphasized that Democrats’ proposed amendment “isn’t just bad for representative government,” but that it’s “bad for Virginia, period.”
If this measure passes, it “would make Virginia the most gerrymandered state in the country,” Ryer said. “Virginia [would] be a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Democratic Party. If you think local interests are going to be protected under those circumstances, I dare say they won’t.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
