Virginia voters receive anti-redistricting mailers with Jim Crow-era imagery

Some Virginia voters have reported receiving anti-redistricting mailers that use Jim Crow-era imagery.

A number of Northern Virginia residents have reached out to News4. They say they find the mailers, which likens redistricting to segregation-era voting laws, upsetting and deceptive.

A watchdog group claims they were sent exclusively to Black voters.

Images from mailers obtained by News4 show hooded Klansmen and children running from police with dogs. The other side says “Our ancestors fought to represent us. Now Richmond politicians are trying to take our districts away.” It urges voters to vote no in the referendum that could allow Virginia’s Democrat-controlled state legislature to temporarily redraw 11 congressional districts before the midterm elections.

Virginia’s effort began not long after Texas and North Carolina proposed creating new Republican-leaning districts.

“Horror, anger and confusion. These mailers have caused quite an uproar in the African American community in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the NAACP Virginia State Conference. “[…]They’ve used this hyperbolic messaging, and it has actually backfired on them, because now people are becoming even more aware of what this issue is about and making intelligent decisions.”

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones also condemned the mailer.

“To see this is truly disheartening,” he said. “And frankly, I think there are people across the state who are very tired of this trope where, you know, Black people are used as a prop, and our history is used as a prop.”

Virginia’s battle over whether to create a temporary new electoral map expected to favor Democrats is reaching new intensity as the April 21 voting deadline approaches.

Former President Barack Obama is the face of a new ad, urging Virginians to vote yes.

Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is one of the more prominent faces in the campaign against redistricting.

But the mailers are tied to a political action committee called Democracy and Justice PAC. At a news conference at the state capitol in Richmond Tuesday, Former state Del. A.C. Cordoza of Hampton Roads, a Republican who served two terms, confirmed he serves as chair and he defended the mailers.

Documents of organization for the PAC were filed only a few days ago.