‘We fought this effort with money’: Mike Johnson can’t hide how much he despises Democrats for winning Virginia
A full-blown political war is afoot.
Mike Johnson just let his frustration boil over after Democrats pulled off a win in Virginia, and his latest post on X makes it clear he’s not taking the loss quietly. In a fiery statement, the House Speaker accused Democrats of breaking the law, waging “warfare,” and disenfranchising voters to push their agenda. He outright said Democrats only won because they “rigged the ballot question,” framing the victory as some kind of underhanded scheme.
The numbers tell a different story. According to The Daily Beast, Virginia voters approved the redistricting measure with 51.5% support, while 48.5% opposed it. That’s a narrow margin, sure, but it’s still a win, and one that could hand Democrats a four-seat advantage in the House, flipping the current 6-5 split.
Johnson, though, isn’t buying it. He pointed to the fact that 46% of Virginia voters backed Trump in the last presidential election, arguing that the state’s congressional map shouldn’t favor Democrats so heavily. His exact words: “That is why Democrats relied on rigging the ballot question in order to win.”
This wasn’t some last-minute scramble, either
Republicans threw everything they had at stopping the measure, pouring money, manpower, and legal firepower into the fight. And yet, it still wasn’t enough. Johnson made it clear this isn’t over, vowing that the GOP will keep battling in the courts and beyond. But the tone of his post suggests he’s more than a little salty about how things played out.
The Virginia ballot measure was the most expensive in the state’s history. A staggering $83 million was spent, with $62 million of that coming from House Majority Forward, a nonprofit aligned with House Democrats. Republicans, meanwhile, found themselves scrambling to keep up, and some in the party are already pointing fingers at leadership for not spending enough.
One anonymous Republican strategist didn’t hold back, saying, “If they had spent some money, they could have won tonight and someone’s got to own that and explain why that decision was made.” The fallout from this loss is spreading fast, and it’s not just Johnson who’s upset. The GOP’s redistricting strategy, which started with a push from Trump, has turned into a messy, drawn-out battle with mixed results.
Republicans made gains in states like Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, and Missouri, but Democrats have fought back hard in places like California and Utah. Now, with Virginia potentially swinging from a 6-5 GOP advantage to a 10-1 Democratic edge, the stakes for the midterms just got a lot higher.
Some Republicans are even admitting the mess is partly their own fault
Erick Erickson, a radio host popular with MAGA evangelicals, laid it out bluntly on X: “Just so you get the truth and not the partisan spin here, Republicans came up with the idea of the mid-decade redistricting fight and started in Texas… Now, as drawn, the Democrats have an advantage from the redistricting fight.”
Others are hoping the courts will bail them out. Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, argued that Virginia is a purple state and shouldn’t be represented by what he called a “severe partisan gerrymander.” He’s pushing for the courts to block the new maps, pointing to previous rulings that have already shot down similar attempts.
Not everyone in the GOP is on the same page about how to handle this
Some conservatives are turning their frustration toward other red states that didn’t go all-in on redistricting, while others are pinning their hopes on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to deliver a narrow GOP lead in November. Scott Jennings, a Trump-aligned CNN commentator, took a different angle, calling Virginia’s maps “the fairest in the nation” and blaming the loss on Democrats having “all the money and all the lies.”
Johnson’s post didn’t stop at Virginia, either. He painted the win as just the beginning of what Democrats will do if they keep gaining power, warning that they’ll “throw open our borders, let crime run rampant in our streets, project weakness on the world stage, make life more expensive for every family, and flood our elections with non-citizens to try and hold on to power forever.”
The bigger picture here is that redistricting has become a full-blown political war, and neither side is backing down. Republicans started this fight with mid-cycle redistricting in 2024, and now Democrats are playing the same game, turning the tables in key states. The problem? It’s a zero-sum game where every gain for one side feels like a gut punch to the other. And with control of Congress hanging in the balance, neither party can afford to lose.
For Johnson, this isn’t just about Virginia. It’s about setting the tone for the midterms and rallying Republicans to fight even harder. His post ended with a defiant promise: “Republicans have responded in state after state, and we will finish this fight – and in November, we will WIN the midterms.”
(Featured image: Gage Skidmore)
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