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GOP Legislators Shamelessly Attempt to Limit Democrats’ Power

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 4, 2018
 
CONTACT:
Mara Sloan
DLCC Communications Director
[email protected]
202.449.6740
 
GOP Legislators Shamelessly Attempt to Limit Democrats’ Power
Wisconsin and Michigan Republicans are following the sore loser precedent set by North Carolina GOP in 2016
 
WASHINGTON — Republican state legislators in Wisconsin and Michigan are using their lame duck legislative sessions to pass a number of bills that would dilute the power of newly elected Democrats.
 
After Democrats swept all statewide elections in Wisconsin and Michigan and busted Michigan Republicans’ supermajority in the state Senate, Republicans are attempting to pass legislation to slash the powers of incoming Democratic governors, attorneys general, and secretaries of state. Republicans in Wisconsin are also considering bills to cut early voting times in half, while Michigan legislators are working to limit the authority and oversight of incoming Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson over matters of campaign finance.
 
“Just because Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan don’t like the outcome of the election does not give them the right to put power over people and disregard the will of the voters,” said DLCC Executive Director Jessica Post. “After years of voter suppression laws enacted by Republican legislators who were elected on their own gerrymandered lines, this partisan gamesmanship has reached a new low. These shameful power grabbing shenanigans are not helping to move our country forward. We must work to elect more state Democrats in 2020 who will stand up for all Americans in their state legislatures.”
 
Michigan and Wisconsin Republicans have stooped to using the same shady tactics seen in North Carolina after Democratic Governor Roy Cooper was elected, sending shockwaves through the state government and landing many Republican bills in court.
 
In the 2018 cycle, Democrats won over 2,900 state legislative seats – gaining seven trifectas, eight majorities, six supermajorities, and shattering four Republican supermajorities. Nearly 1,250 of the Democrats elected to their state legislatures in 2018 were women, and more than 900 were candidates of color. The DLCC knows that when Democrats have the majority in chambers, policies are passed that help all Americans. As the only organization exclusively committed to electing Democrats to state legislatures all over the country and winning Democratic control of chambers, the DLCC has been working with state legislative leaders for over two decades to invest strategically in state programs and rebuild the Democratic Party from the ground up. With the help of the DLCC, state Democrats are leading the resistance against the Trump administration’s extremist policies while moving our nation forward one state at a time.
 
For more information or to schedule an interview with the DLCC, please contact Mara Sloan at [email protected].
 
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