Virginia's congressional districts, depicted above, are also heavily gerrymandered to favor Republicans

Virginia's congressional districts, depicted above, are also heavily gerrymandered to favor Republicans

In disappointing news late last week, a panel of three federal judges upheld Virginia's state House map, which Republicans drew in 2011 to maximize their partisan advantage in the state. In fact, get this: Even though Barack Obama carried Virginia twice in a row, Democrats hold just 32 seats in the House of Delegates while Republicans control 67—more than twice as many! And the situation in Congress, depicted in the map above, is even worse, as Republicans currently occupy eight of the state's seats in the U.S. House compared to just three for Democrats.

What makes this ruling a real bummer is that in a very similar case, another group of federal judges invalidated part of the state's congressional map, saying that Republicans had packed too many black voters into too few districts, thus minimizing their political clout. The same arguments were also advanced in this case, and even though the GOP did the exact same thing with the state House map as with the congressional map, these claims didn't meet with success this time.

That makes it more important than ever that we fight back against this sort of gerrymandering at the ballot box, and we can deal a serious blow to the GOP right now. For starters, we need to pick up just one seat to win back control of the state Senate. And while Democrats are in a serious hole in the state House, we have three elections before the next round of redistricting in 2020. If we can make real gains this year, and add to them in 2017 and 2019, then Republicans won't be able to run roughshod over Virginia voters when it comes time to draw the next set of maps.

That's why we've endorsed a slate of eight great candidates who are running for the Virginia legislature, all but one of whom is running in a district currently held by the GOP. (That last seat is a must-win defensive hold we'll need to take the Senate.) Election Day is just a week away, so we need to act now.

We can't count on the courts to protect us from Republican gerrymandering, so please donate $1 to each of these Democrats.