WASHINGTON — Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Jessica Post wrote an opinion piece in USA Today about how Democrats are actually winning the fight for fair maps — despite the outcome of the 2020 elections. Thanks to Democratic wins in statehouses and governorships over the course of the last decade, as well as the growing adoption of nonpartisan commissions, 2021 will see fairer maps than in the 2011 redistricting cycle.
Post wrote that “Democrats will have profoundly greater influence over redistricting heading into this decade than we did the last, and voters in many states will be drawn into fair, non-gerrymandered districts for the first time in a generation.”
Over the last ten years, Democrats have dramatically shifted who controls redistricting. In New Mexico, Nevada, Maine, and Oregon, Republicans had power over redistricting in 2011, but now Democrats have total control to draw fair maps. Even in states where we don’t hold legislative majorities, Democrats ended complete Republican control by flipping governorships in Kansas, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Michigan. Democrats have also broken GOP supermajorities in Pennsylvania and Michigan and ensured Republicans didn’t gain one in Louisiana and Wisconsin.
Democrats are far better positioned heading into this decade than they were the last. Thanks to ten years of hard work, long-term investments, and building state parties from the ground up, the DLCC has made a tremendous impact on ending gerrymandered maps.
Read the full op-ed here.
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