Barack Obama’s past comments haunt Virginia Democrats’ efforts to gerrymander new districts | CNN Politics

Barack Obama’s past comments are haunting Democrats’ efforts to draw new congressional districts in Virginia as they try to give their party an edge in the battle for control of Congress. The former president, still one of the Democratic Party’s most popular figures, has endorsed and appeared in ads supporting an April 21 referendum that Democrats say will help them gain as many as four US House seats in this fall’s midterms. But opponents of the referendum are using his image and words too, citing his previous support for efforts to draw nonpartisan districts. Virginians For Fair Maps, the leading group opposing redistricting, launched a TV ad on Thursday that emphasized Obama’s past criticism of gerrymandering. “Because of things like political gerrymandering, our parties have moved further and further apart, and it’s harder and harder to find common ground,” Obama says in a clip featured in the ad. Another group is sending mailers that feature Obama’s image and one statement from six years ago, when he wrote on X: “For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government.” Large block letters on the mailers u