Measuring Partisan Lean of Court's Maps

The two 'special masters' appointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia say their methodology followed state guidelines that redistricting would not unduly favor one political party over another. This visual calculates how the overall partisan lean of the proposed map compares with current districts. Purple indicates the most competitive districts, which range from +5D to +5R.

Note: The analysis is not intended to predict future results. Rather, the intent is to compare how the 40 Senate districts and 100 House districts would have performed compared to the existing districts.

A bar chart comparing the partisanship of the Special Masters' Proposed State Senate map with the current State Senate map. 17 districts are strong Democratic, 4 are lean Democratic, 4 are competitive, 4 are lean Republican, and 11 are strong Republican under the proposed map. Under the current map, 16 are strong Democratic, 5 are lean Democratic, 4 are competitive, 5 are lean Republican, and 10 are strong Republican


A bar chart comparing the partisanship of the Special Masters' proposed House of Delegates map with the current House of Delegates map. 40 districts are strong Democratic, 10 are lean Democratic, 10 are competitive, 15 are lean Republican, and 25 are strong Republican in the proposed map. In the current map, 32 districts are strong Democratic, 21 are lean Democratic, 8 are competitive, 11 are lean Republican, and 28 are strong Republican.

Source: Partisan results are based on statewide results from the November general election for 2017 Attorney General. Methodology used by the Special Master were posted 12/8/2021 on the Supreme Court of Virginia website. Results for the current district based on analysis by VPAP shortly after the 2017 elections.

Dec. 9, 2021