Democrats fight back against Trump in Virginia… and win
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A small election in Virginia looks set to have a major impact on Donald Trump’s power, and the capacity to derail the rest of the president’s second term in office.
Overnight, voters in Virginia approved a measure to redraw the state’s political map in favour of the Democrats, who now stand to gain as many as four additional seats in November’s midterms. Given Trump’s thin majority in the House of Representatives, that shift could be enough to flip Congress and put Democrats back in control of the nation’s legislature.
The debate around ‘gerrymandering’ began when Donald Trump urged conservatives to push through redistricting in their own states to redraw their own maps in favour of Republicans, sparking retaliation from Democrats in places like California and Utah.
The Democrats argue the Virginia election is about restoring fairness while Republicans have accused the party of acting like hypocrites. Will voters be turned off by the tactics, where does it all end, and which party stands to gain in the midterm elections?
HOSTS: • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
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This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | On Newscast, we are not in the business of telling you how to think. |
| 0:11.5 | We get the brightest minds from across the BBC to chat through the biggest stories. |
| 0:16.1 | You should leave feeling smarter about all the bonkers things in the news. |
| 0:19.7 | Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:23.2 | Democrats have scored a major electoral victory. |
| 0:26.1 | They did it overnight with a special election in Virginia. |
| 0:29.8 | This was a campaign that had both Kamala Harris and Barack Obama involved on the Democratic side. |
| 0:35.5 | Donald Trump warning it would be a disaster that would affect |
| 0:38.3 | the whole country if the Democrats triumphed. Well, they did, and their win, rewriting the electoral |
| 0:43.7 | map of Virginia will have huge consequences for the midterm elections, for Donald Trump and for his |
| 0:49.0 | agenda. So how's he going to respond? And are the Democrats now on course to win the midterm elections? Welcome to |
| 0:56.6 | AmeriCast. Americaast from BBC News. You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, |
| 1:06.3 | it reminds me of money. We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. |
| 1:12.0 | This is a big cover up, and this administration is engaged in it. This guy has Trump Arrangement |
| 1:16.8 | syndrome. I have four words for you. Turn the volume up. |
| 1:27.1 | Hello, it's Sarah in the BBC's Washington Bureau. |
| 1:30.1 | And it's Anthony, right here next to Sarah in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:33.3 | And it's about half past 10 in the morning for us. |
| 1:35.6 | If anybody was in the worldwide headquarters, it would be 3.30 in the afternoon on Wednesday for them in the UK. |
| 1:41.8 | And today we're going to be talking about quite an important development in politics, |
| 1:46.4 | which is rewriting the electoral map essentially across America. |
... |
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