(This article has been updated to correct Trump's approval rating in the April 19 NBC News Decision Desk Poll. It is 37%.)
President Donald Trump asserted without evidence that the Virginia special election approving an aggressive Democratic-leaning map of the state's 11 congressional districts was fixed against Republicans.
"A rigged election took place last night in the great Commonwealth of Virginia!" he said in an April 22 post on Truth Social.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
The "yes" side on the referendum eked out a victory by three percentage points on April 21 that temporarily changes Old Dominion's boundaries for its delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Democrats currently hold a 6-to-5 edge, but under the new lines, they are poised to have an overwhelming 10-to-1 advantage. The vote was part of a larger gerrymandering arms race Trump started last year to thwart an expected "blue wave" ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
In the Truth Social post, the president bemoaned how the "no" side did well on Election Day but lost after the early voting ballots were counted. Trump has long been a critic of mail-in voting and has issued a controversial executive order attempting to restrict it, despite using the voting method himself.
"All day long Republicans were winning, the spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive 'mail in ballot Drop!' Where have I heard that before — and the Democrats eked out another crooked victory!" he said.
There were numerous reports about an uptick in early voting that favored Democrats as well as a surge by Republicans, fueled by angry rural voters in the southern half of the state, who surged on Election Day in an effort to defeat the measure.
Trump alleging fraud is a longstanding practice by the president to question election results that don't go his way. He continues to falsely claim that he won the 2020 presidential election, for instance, and also lashed out online this week about his sinking polling numbers, which show a 37% job approval rating amid a backlash to the war in Iran.
"The president ordered states to draw more Republican seats in Congress because he knows he cannot win with his record," Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who supported the measure, said in an April 22 post on X.
"Rising prices. Reckless war. Failed promises. Virginians made their response loud and clear last night," she added. "Now, we get to work to win in November."
Trump supports courts overturning Virginia redistricting outcome
Virginia Republicans who opposed the amendment have filed a lawsuit, arguing the referendum lacked "neutral framing" due to the ballot question that said the new districts would "restore fairness" to the state's congressional map.
Trump said in his Truth Social post that the language was "purposefully unintelligible and deceptive," echoing GOP state leaders.
"As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the referendum, and neither do they," he said. "Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of 'justice.'"
A scorecard by Princeton University's Gerrymandering Project rated Virginia's current boundaries as one of the fairest in the nation.
But Democrats and their allies argue that seeking the change in Virginia, which will last until the 2030 Census, was necessary due to Trump's arm-twisting of Republican-led legislatures to protect his party's majority in Congress.
Trump urged Texas Republicans to redo their state's map last year and has pressured other GOP-led states, such as Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, to do the same. They've added nine seats favoring Republicans in total, according to trackers.
The tactic appears to have backfired, however, after Democrats successfully undertook the same strategy in California and later Virginia, which, along with Utah, have adopted new maps giving them 10 additional seats.
"MAGA dare I say it, they're losing at their own game," California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an April 21 post on X, shortly after the Virginia results were announced.
Some Republicans, such as former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, are publicly expressing dismay at Trump's strategy. He said the GOP "should not have started this fight," in a post on X.
Other GOP operatives, such as Trump campaign political director James Blair, defended the outcome without claiming it was "rigged" as the president did. He pointed out that Democrats won Virginia's gubernatorial race last year by 15 percentage points in an April 22 interview with CNN.
Trump lost Virginia to former Vice President Kamala Harris, carrying about 46% of the vote, and the "no" side lost the special election, holding about 48% of that tally.
"It was very close last night," Blair said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump claims Virginia redistricting vote was 'rigged' without evidence
