President Donald Trump and his huge populist coalition saved many federal and state GOP legislators from being redistricted out of their jobs during the next decade, according to media reports on statehouse election results.
“It’s clear that Trump isn’t an anchor for the Republican legislative candidates. He’s a buoy,” Christina Polizzi, a spokesperson for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, told Politico on Wednesday. “He overperformed media expectations, Democratic and Republican expectations, and lifted legislative candidates with him.”
The 2020 elections were critical because they elect the state legislators who use the census date to redraw election districts in 2021 for state and House politicians.
Back in 2010, the GOP won big and redrew the districts in 2011 to maximize their political representation for the decade. Many Democrats — including former President Barack Obama — repeatedly lamented the pro-GOP districts they created after the 2010 election.
Trump’s huge 2020 turnout allows the GOP to keep that streak going.
“The victories they won in state legislatures could be the most consequential of all, giving the GOP outsize influence over the congressional and legislative redistricting process that begins early next year,” reported Politico, who added:
The GOP was jubilant. By Wednesday afternoon, Republicans appeared to have flipped both the state House and Senate in New Hampshire — and more importantly to them, they blocked Democrats from making gains after extreme spending from both sides.
“The results that we saw last night and that will continue to come out throughout the day today and the rest of this week will put the Republican Party in a position where we’re able to secure a decade of power across the country,” said Austin Chambers, the president of the Republican State Leadership Committee. “And it’s something that the Democrats were desperate for, and they came up well short.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday:
As of late Wednesday, Republicans had flipped control of two chambers, the New Hampshire state House and Senate, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. Arizona’s state Senate and House were too close to call.
Of the 98 partisan chambers, Republicans will control at least 59 next year. (Nebraska has a nonpartisan, unicameral Legislature.)
Republicans will control both legislative chambers in 24 of the 36 states in which legislatures draw district lines for U.S. Congress, the state legislature itself, or both, according to the conference.
Trump is also trying to exclude illegal migrants from the calculations that are used to distribute 435 House seats to the 50 states. That push will likely be decided by the Supreme Court, and it may nudge a few additional seats to lower-migration, GOP-leaning states.
Read the “Decade of Power” Politico report here.
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