Resisting Trump By Fighting Racial Gerrymandering And Taking Back State Legislatures-- Like In VA.
As we've been explaining, Republicans hold a record number of state legislative seats right now. This is not because more people vote for them. Democrats aren't losing elections, as the so-called Democrat Jim Webb asserted on Meet the Press Sunday, because Democrats are too focused on "identity politics" or because we’ve moved too far to the left. This is because Republicans prevent people from voting and racially gerrymander statehouses across the country. With operation REDMAP and a slew of partisan policies, Republicans have systematically taken control of both houses of 32 state legislatures across the country, including in one of the two states with state level elections being held this year-- Virginia.
In Virginia, Republicans used these tactics to take 66 of the 100 seats in the state house, despite the state having two Democratic Senators, a Democratic Attorney General and Governor, and having gone blue in every single one of the last three Presidential elections. Clinton beat Trump in November 1,916,845 (49.9%) to 1,731,156 (45.0%). Just as an example, courts ruled in both 2014 and 2015 that Virginia’s congressional districts were racially gerrymandered and needed to be changed and in 2016 the Supreme Court accepted a case arguing that 12 state legislative districts were racially gerrymandered as well.
Reversing years of new Jim Crow laws and winning a 51-seat majority in the state house is not a one cycle project. But it is something that we need to start now if we are ever going to pass fair district maps. And passing fair maps is what we need to do if we’re ever going to have a chance to take back and hold Congress.
That’s why I want to introduce you to Josh King. Josh is one of the top Delegate races in Virginia this year. He ran in 2015 and came within 125 votes of winning the seat, despite only being in the race for four months and being outspent 3:1. But now Mark Dudenhefer, the incumbent Republican, is retiring. Better yet, the district went for Hillary in a landslide-- by over 20 points. The district has parts of Prince William and Stafford counties. It's been pretty reliably Democratic in recent races. In the last gubernatorial race McAuliffe took the district against Cuccinelli 53-42%. The next year Mark Warner beat Ed Gillespie for U.S. Senate 52-46%. In 2012 Obama won the district against Romney 58-40% and Tim Kaine beat George Allen 59-41%. The district goes south from Woodbridge along the Potomac to Quantico, heads further south down to Arkendale and Widewater Beach and west to Tacketts Mill and Roseville. This is definitely one where we can turn a Republican-held seat Blue... and progressive.
Read more: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2017/02/resisting-trump-by-fighting-racial.html
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