Holloway, et al. v. City of Virginia Beach

The city of Virginia Beach is the largest city in Virginia. An 11-member City Council is the governing body for Virginia Beach.  

From 1966 to 2021, the mayor and the other 10 councilmembers were elected at-large to four-year staggered terms. Seven of the 11 councilmembers were required to be residents of the seven districts in Virginia Beach (Bayside, Beach, Centerville, Kempsville, Lynnhaven, Princess Anne and Rose Hall), but they were nonetheless elected at-large. The other four seats, including the mayor, were elected at-large with no residency requirements.

In 2018, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed the first amended complaint challenging Virginia Beach’s at-large election system. In 2021, a federal court found that the city’s at-large election system violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The court held a fulsome remedial process and ultimately ordered the city to adopt a system of elections where all 10 members of the City Council are elected via single-member districts, while the mayor is elected at-large (10-1 system).

The city implemented the 10-1 system while the case was on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. While the case was ultimately declared moot due to a legislative change that altered Virginia Beach’s system to a seven single-member district, three at-large, one mayor system (7-3-1 system), the 2022 election went forward under the fair 10-1 system ordered by the federal court. That election resulted in the most diverse city council in Virginia Beach history. In 2023, after a public input process that showed 81% of Virginia Beach residents preferred the 10-1 system, the City Council passed a redistricting ordinance to formally adopt that 10-1 electoral system. The 2024 election also went forward under that system.

In 2025, however, a state court ruled that the city could not change its electoral system without a charter change, which requires legislative approval. This meant that the 7-3-1 system was then set to govern future elections, once again threatening to dilute the votes of Virginia Beach’s Black, Latino and AAPI voters. CLC reopened our case and filed a second amended complaint challenging the 7-3-1 system.  

In November 2025, Virginia Beach voters passed a referendum requesting that the Virginia General Assembly change the Virginia Beach city charter to adopt the fair 10-1 system for all future elections. In March 2026, the General Assembly passed and the governor signed that charter change into law.  

Impact on Underrepresented Voters

According to the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the Virginia Beach non-Hispanic white citizen population was 59.4%, the non-Hispanic Black population was 18.3%, the non-Hispanic Asian citizen voting age population was 7.0%, and the Hispanic population was 8.9%.

Yet, Black, Latino and AAPI voters in Virginia Beach historically have been prevented from participating fully in City Council elections because of the way that councilmembers are elected. That prior election method, in which all councilmembers were elected at-large in citywide elections, unlawfully diluted the voting strength of these voters and prevented them from electing their candidates of choice to the City Council.

The Virginia Beach City Council has 11 members. Because voting is racially polarized — in this case meaning that white voters as a group and Black, Latino and AAPI voters as a group usually prefer different candidates — the at-large method of election regularly functioned to deprive more than one-third of the city’s population from electing candidates of their choice to any of the 11 seats on the City Council.

From 1966 until its adoption of the 10-1 system of election, the city had elected only five Black councilmembers, one AAPI councilmember and no Latino councilmembers.

The denial of the right of Virginia Beach’s Black, Latino and AAPI residents to have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice to the City Council resulted in a City Council that was not responsive to the particular needs of these residents.

At-Large Elections in Virginia Beach Violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Virginia Voting Rights Act

In Virginia Beach, at-large methods of election for the City Council submerged Black, Latino and AAPI voters so that they are rendered ineffective electoral minorities in most elections; denied these voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect councilmembers of their choice; and diluted the vote of all of Virginia Beach’s Black, Latino and AAPI voters. This was true in the prior all at-large electoral system and in the prospective 7-3-1 electoral system. And, if the 7-3-1 system had been adopted, that would have also violated the Virginia Voting Rights Act.

Adoption of a Fair Electoral System

On March 9, 2026, the 10-1 system was officially adopted in a victory for fair representation in Virginia Beach. Adopting the fair 10-1 system ends a decades-long legacy of discrimination against communities of color in how officials in Virginia’s largest city are elected, and it ensures that Black, Latino and AAPI voters in Virginia Beach continue to have the equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.