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There’s a lot going on, so every Wednesday, the DLCC is sending a roundup of the state legislative stories you might have missed. It’s September 23rd and here is the state of the states.
For questions and suggestions, e-mail us.
- The devastating news of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death highlights the importance of building a Democratic wall in the states. If a conservative court strikes down the ACA or Roe v. Wade, state legislatures are the last line of defense protecting health care, reproductive rights, voting rights, and LGBTQ+ equality.
- Donald Trump’s campaign allegedly asked state legislators to elect Trump even if he loses — just as we’ve remembered that there is no fail-safe against post-election struggles over who actually won. Cue constitutional crisis alarm bells that won’t stop ringing for at least five more weeks.
- In Arizona, the DLCC is expanding its map with an additional target district and two new Spotlight candidates. We also singled out three awful Republican candidates as new additions to our GOP Hall of Shame — including a Republican who thinks the ACA is unconstitutional.
- The DLCC rolled out its slate of Kansas, Wisconsin, and Alaska Spotlight candidates. With just 41 days until Election Day, state Democrats are ready to take down Republicans at the ballot box.
- Republicans are defunding the police by not giving more federal funding to the states. They’re also defunding teachers, first responders, and other emergency service workers — not to mention the aid they’re withholding from families who are struggling to get by. What we’re saying is that Republicans are hypocrites and they could pass aid to help the country, but they won’t because they don’t care about helping families. They care about helping Trump.
- Minnesota Senator Roger Chamberlain gave a touching tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, retweeting a post calling her a “fighter to the end,” and then subsequently liking a tweet calling her a “racist POS.” This isn’t the first time Chamberlain has done weirdthingsonTwitter. Stay classy, Roger.
- Texas GOP state Representative Dwayne Bohac criticized Biden for “stating the obvious” that we should listen to science. If it’s so obvious, why doesn’t Bohac’s party know that?
- New Hampshire Republican legislators chose to drink beer outside of a weekday legislative session on a college campus — and you can bet they didn’t wear masks, defying the state’s mask mandate. We know that breaking the rules seemed cool in college, but it’s time for these GOP officials to grow up.
- Arizona GOP Senator Vince Leach gave a literal thumbs up to a QAnon cartoon, spewing fake patriotism in the form of lies, racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism. He also shared a cartoon claiming that Black Lives Matter approved of 9/11, another with racist Latino stereotypes, and yet another depicting a fetus that wants Trump to pick RBG’s successor. We actually did have GOP legislators obsessed with creepy cartoons on our 2020 bingo card.
- Texas Republican Representatives Jeff Leach and Matt Shaheen defended their support for anti-vaccination policies. What a great (read: awful) stance to take during a global pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans.
- Minnesota Republican House candidate Kenneth Bush threatened a community member for criticizing Bush — alluding to his second amendment rights. Bush’s electoral philosophy is if you can’t win voters over with your platform, win them over with brute force. Seems to be a trend among Republicans this year!
- A Republican lawmaker in Virginia got COVID-19 and didn’t tell anyone in the legislature. This has happened in multiple states, with multiple GOP legislators. It’s almost hard to believe people think they aren’t taking this virus seriously…
- Virginians took to the polls last week to take advantage of early voting — marking the first year that all Virginians could vote early, thanks to the hard work of Virginia Democrats working with their new legislative majority.
- Michigan House candidate Dan O’Neil beat Republicans at their own game when he bought the rights to a website from a Republican attack ad against him. Check out what it is now.
- The upcoming U.S. Supreme Court vacancy puts abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and health care on the line. Watch how Republican legislators will use this as their “golden opportunity” to destroy rights in America. We’re going to flip seats to stop them.
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