ABC News drew sharp criticism on social media after its politics account on X posted a campaign video from former President Barack Obama supporting a Virginia redistricting measure and stamped it with the label "exclusive", as though a partisan campaign ad were a piece of original journalism.
The post from ABCPolitics featured Obama urging Virginia voters to approve a redistricting referendum ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The network presented the clip as exclusively obtained content. But critics were quick to point out that the video had already been running as a paid advertisement across the state for weeks, raising pointed questions about why a major news outlet would treat a political campaign spot as a journalistic get.
Fox News reported that the backlash unfolded Friday as users on X challenged the framing. ABC News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Mark Hemingway, a senior writer at RealClearInvestigations, posed the question bluntly on X:
"Why the h*** does a major news network consider an extremely partisan campaign ad an 'exclusive'?"
Retired U.S. diplomat Alberto Miguel Fernandez offered a similar rebuke, noting that the ad had been saturating Virginia airwaves and screens well before ABC's post:
"Every time I turn on the television here in Virginia, I see Obama saying this nonsense. For weeks now. How in the world is this 'exclusive' or even new, @ABCPolitics?"
One user cited on X said they had seen the ad roughly 20 times in the past week on YouTube alone. The notion that ABC had secured something exclusive struck many observers as either misleading or a sign of something worse, a news organization willingly functioning as a distribution arm for a Democratic campaign operation.
In the video, Obama urged Virginians to vote "yes" on the referendum as early voting got underway. His pitch was framed as a response to Republican redistricting efforts in other states.
"By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms. By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we're counting on you."
But the details behind the measure tell a different story than the one Obama was selling. Just The News reported that the referendum would suspend Virginia's constitutional requirements for a bipartisan redistricting commission and instead allow state lawmakers to redraw congressional district lines. The proposed map, under that reporting, would likely shift Virginia's congressional delegation from six Democrats and five Republicans to ten Democrats and just one Republican.
That is not "leveling the playing field." That is tipping the board over and rebuilding it.
Virginia Democrats passed the new congressional map and Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed it into law, but it takes effect only if voters approve the referendum and the state Supreme Court signs off, Newsmax reported. The outlet noted this marks the second time Obama has backed a Democratic effort to temporarily set aside an independent or bipartisan redistricting process in favor of partisan maps, following a similar push in California.
Obama also said in the video, as Newsmax reported: "This amendment gives you the power to level the playing field in the midterms this fall." And: "Your voting power is not diminished by what Republicans are doing in other states."
For years, Democrats have positioned themselves as opponents of gerrymandering. They have championed independent redistricting commissions and warned about the dangers of letting partisan legislatures draw their own maps. Virginia, in fact, adopted a bipartisan redistricting commission through a constitutional amendment, the very mechanism Democrats now want to suspend.
Obama himself has been a vocal critic of partisan map-drawing when Republicans do it. Yet here he is, starring in a campaign ad designed to bypass a bipartisan system and hand Democrats a near-total lock on Virginia's congressional seats. The former president has said he will not return to public office, but his willingness to lend his name and face to nakedly partisan efforts has not slowed down.
Spanberger, who is serving in her first year as governor and is the first woman to hold the position in the Commonwealth of Virginia, delivered the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Feb. 24, 2026, in Williamsburg. Her administration signed the redistricting law that the referendum would activate.
The contradiction is plain. Democrats spent a decade telling voters that gerrymandering is a threat to democracy. Now they want voters to approve a map that would convert a competitive 6-5 delegation into a 10-1 blowout, and they want a former president to sell it on camera.
Obama's willingness to wade into partisan fights is nothing new. He drew criticism for turning a memorial service into a political rally not long ago, and his foundation has faced scrutiny over its own practices, including requiring photo ID for free admission to his presidential center even as Democrats fight voter ID laws at the ballot box.
The deeper issue is not Obama. Politicians campaign. That is what they do. The issue is ABC News treating a campaign ad as journalism.
When a network labels a partisan political spot as an "exclusive," it blurs the line between reporting and advocacy. An exclusive, in journalism, means a news organization obtained information or access that competitors did not. A campaign ad distributed to voters across a state, one that had been running for weeks on television and online, does not meet that definition by any reasonable standard.
The "exclusive" tag gave the Obama video something it could not earn on its own: the appearance of journalistic validation. It framed a piece of political messaging as if it were a scoop. And it did so on behalf of one party, on one side of a live ballot question.
ABC News offered no immediate explanation. Fox News Digital's request for comment went unanswered.
The episode lands in a media environment where trust in major news outlets is already low. Viewers can see a campaign ad for what it is. They can also see when a network pretends it is something else.
If ABC News wants to run Democratic campaign ads, it can sell the airtime like everyone else. Slapping an "exclusive" label on one and calling it news does not fool anyone, it just confirms what millions of Americans already suspect.
