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WASHINGTON— On Friday evening, DLCC President Heather Williams and DLCC Board Chair and New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins joined MSNBC’s The Last Word to discuss how Democratic power has grown in state legislatures and what that means for the fight ahead. The DLCC and state Democrats successfully prevented a Republican wave from taking shape in state legislatures this cycle, and state legislatures are better positioned than ever to counter Trump and the incoming GOP federal trifecta on Project 2025 and MAGA extremism.
To watch the full video click here.
Check out some key excerpts below:
- Leader Stewart-Cousins on the blue firewall: “We’ve got to continue to…make sure that people understand that state legislatures are going to be more important than ever because we’ve got Project 2025 looming. They are talking about bringing things to the state. What happens on the state level will matter, and has mattered…In 2016, 29 legislatures were Democratically-controlled. Now there are 39. So we continue to build on the progress.”
- Leader Stewart-Cousins on how blue states will counter the Trump administration: “I think that what people have to remember is that our [New York] majority was born of Trump 1.0. In 2016, we had been out of power in the Senate Democrats for over 10 years, and once he won in 2016 people looked at the state and said, what can we do in order to make sure that his power is blunted? And they elected a Democratic Senate majority. We have held that majority now for the past five years.”
- Heather Williams on the upcoming Virginia special elections: “We always have elections, [and] the first one is coming up here in Virginia on January 7th. The great thing about this ballot level and the work that we do is our candidates are really listening to the voters. We know that our candidates will be out there in their communities, knocking on the doors, having those real conversations with voters. We know that that was an incredible tool in this last election, and in November, it bore results that were much better at this ballot level than elsewhere on the ticket.”
- Heather Williams on the path ahead and mobilizing voters: “[State Democrats] deliver on the issues that voters are talking about. It is pocketbook book issues, [and] ensuring that we have strong access to reproductive health care and equal and fair access to education… And the good news is that out of this election, we have a clear path for what’s to come in 2026. We know that we’re going to be fighting in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and we’re ready.”
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