WASHINGTON — Last week, Republican extremism ran rampant in the states, with three notable instances of state Republicans using their positions to abuse power.
First, the extremist, conservative, New Hampshire Board of Education voted unanimously to approve an online Prager University Foundation’s course – becoming the third state with Republican legislative majorities (following Florida and Oklahoma) to approve “PragerU” for use in public classrooms.
A reminder: New Hampshire has a critical legislative special election today, where a Democratic victory would put Democrats one step closer to breaking the legislative trifecta currently held by the increasingly-extreme New Hampshire Republican Party.
A reminder: PragerU is a right-wing, unaccredited, non-academic institution dedicated to promoting extremist social and political views such as comparing climate activists to Nazis and depicting slavery as a compromise between the Founding Fathers and the Southern colonies for the benefit of the U.S.
Next, Texas Senate Republicans decided to acquit disgraced, indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial, who is still under active FBI investigation. Despite overwhelming evidence that Paxton abused his authority, took bribes and lied to the public, Texas Senate Republicans still voted to keep him in office, proving once again that extremism has no bounds in the modern-day Texas GOP.
Finally, Wisconsin Republicans threatened to impeach a Democratically-elected state Supreme Court justice, voted to fire the state’s top nonpartisan election official, and advanced a redistricting bill meant to preempt the state Supreme Court from ordering the drawing of fair maps.
Whether it’s the Northeast, South, or Midwest, across the country, Republican extremism in the states continues to take hold.
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Communications Director Abhi Rahman issued the following statement:
“PragerU, the sham Paxton Trial, and Wisconsin Republican’s multiple attempts to subvert democracy are clear-cut examples of why it’s so important to elect state and local Democrats across the country. Under states with Republican leadership, extremism is taking hold, be it what we’re teaching our children, how we hold our elected officials to acceptable standards, or how we uphold our democracy itself.
“Electing Democrats to state and local positions in every state has never been more important. When we elect Democrats to state legislatures and other local positions, we ensure our school curriculums aren’t corrupted by politics, our elected officials aren’t blatantly breaking the law, and our elections are free and fair. The importance of state and local elections has never been more clear. It’s time for Democrats to win up and down the ballot – and continue to fight extremism everywhere it comes.”
The DLCC is the official Democratic Party committee dedicated to winning America’s state legislatures. Last year, the DLCC defied the odds by not losing any state legislative majorities, flipping four key chambers, and creating four new Democratic trifectas – the best midterm year for the party in power since at least 1934. State legislatures are the building blocks of our democracy and pass the policies that have the biggest impact on Americans’ day-to-day lives.
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