Dear Editor, Virginia voters spoke clearly in 2024 when we approved a bipartisan redistricting process, and ended up with a district spilt of 5 for one and 6 for the other, what could be fairer than that. We did that to end political gamesmanship and to anchor our congressional maps to the rule of law, not to the shifting winds of party advantage.

Now we are being told that we should ignore our own Constitution because Texas made a move some people don’t like. That argument is nothing more than an invitation to abandon our principles out of convenience.

Two wrongs do not make a right.

If Texas chooses to bend its rules, that is Texas’s problem. It does not give Virginia permission to break ours. The whole point of a constitution is to restrain exactly this kind of reactionary behavior. Once we start treating constitutional requirements as optional, we lose the moral authority to demand fairness from anyone else.

Virginians deserve better than a political shortcut. We put a lawful, bipartisan process in place. We should follow it — not toss it aside because another state made a decision we disagree with.

Respectfully, -John Bangs Heathsville