Last November, the citizens of Virginia voted in favor of Amendment 1, which transferred the power of the General Assembly to draw the state’s congressional and legislative districts to a redistricting commission composed of both state legislators and citizens. Yesterday, a panel of five retired judges picked the six men and two women from 62 finalists that legislators nominated from a pool of more than 1,200 applicants. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, these citizens will work with the efforts of eight lawmakers to redraw the political maps once the 2020 U.S. Census data arrives at the state Capitol. The Redistricting Selection Committee was tasked with picking eight citizens who “reflect the racial, ethnic, geographic, and gender diversity of the Commonwealth.”

Here are the Commission’s Legislative Members:

• Senator George Baker (Alexandria)
• Senator Mamie Locke (Hampton)
• Delegate Delores McQuinn (Richmond)
• Delegate Marcus Simon (Falls Church)
• Delegate Les Adams (Chatham)
• Senator Ryan McDougle (Mechanicsville)
• Senator Steve Newman (Forest)
• Delegate Margaret Ransone (Kinsale)

Here are the citizens who will be working alongside the legislators (Credit: VPAP)

• James Abrenio (Fairfax, Asian, Non-Hispanic)
• Greta Harris (Richmond, Black, Non-Hispanic)
• Brandon Hutchins (Richmond, Black, Non-Hispanic)
• Sean Kumar (Alexandria, Multi-Race)
• Mackenzie Babichenko (Mechanicsville, White, Non-Hispanic)
• Jose Feliciano Jr. (Fredericksburg, White, Hispanic)
• Marvin Gillam (Bristol, White, Non-Hispanic)
• Richard Hutchins III (South Boston, White, Non-Hispanic)

The next steps in the process will be on February 1, in which that will be the deadline for the commission to meet for the first time. On April 1, the census data will be submitted.