Millions continue to pour into Virginia’s redistricting referendum ahead of election day – WVIR

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – Virginia’s redistricting referendum just keeps getting more expensive.
Millions of dollars continue to pour into the special election campaigns, with most of the money still directed towards the pro-redistricting group.
Virginians for Fair Elections, the primary pro-redistricting group, has raised nearly $50 million total, while Virginians for Fair Maps, the main anti-redistricting group, has raised about $18 million, with half of that coming in just this week. House Majority Forward, which is associated with U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, has funded the bulk of the pro-redistricting effort, while Virginians for Fair Maps has contributed the most to its own campaign.
“Campaign finance unfortunately has become a playground for the future rich,” said Larry Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia. “While there are groups that gather small donations, a large majority of these dark money groups are funded by one or a handful of hundred millionaires or billionaires. To them, $9 million is nothing. It’s probably a day’s profit.”
Sabato says the ‘no’ vote campaign has been spending more time with voters on the ground, whereas the ‘yes’ vote has been using its pot of money to flood TV screens with advertisements.
“I have been stunned by the number of ads for the yes campaign,” Sabato said. “They’re everywhere…I don’t recall another campaign of any sort, candidate or referendum, that’s had so much advertising.”
So far, nearly 750,000 Virginians have voted early in the referendum. Early voting numbers had begun outpacing those of the November 2025 statewide election, but as of Tuesday, April 7, referendum numbers have dipped back below.
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