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It’s a new year, so we’re bringing back State of the States. It goes without saying that there’s a lot going on, and Republicans are still up to their old tricks: spreading conspiracies, using dangerous rhetoric, denying reality, etc.
Every week, the DLCC is sending a roundup of the state legislative stories you might have missed. It’s January 21st and here is the state of the states.
- The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee congratulates President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on their inauguration. We’re proud to call them the leaders of our party, and now Democrats can start building back better.
- The deep support of many other Republican legislators in the states — who refused to acknowledge election results, spewed conspiracy theories, and lied to the public — fueled the flames of the catastrophic attack on the U.S. Capitol.
- Today, we launched our GOP Hall of Shame: Sedition Edition to hold 500+ Republican state lawmakers accountable for undermining our election. This database lists the enemies of democracy who aided and abetted a movement to overthrow our democracy and hand Donald Trump another four years in the White House.
- The DLCC also launched digital ads in Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to hold their insurrectionist legislators accountable for preventing further violence.
- Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey spoke with three militia groups; just one month later, men with militia ties planned to kidnap and execute Governor Gretchen Whitmer. “[Improving] their message” seems like a pretty weak reason to meet with them — but what do you expect from a guy who says militias have a “bad rap” and “bleed right, white and blue.” The DLCC has called on him to resign.
- DLCC board members Michigan Senate Democratic Leader Jim Ananich and Pennsylvania Senator Vincent Hughes penned an op-ed explaining that state Republicans backed Trump and his lies that led to the U.S. Capitol attack — and why now it’s the GOP’s responsibility to tamp down the violence coming from their supporters
- Republicans are already starting to lay the groundwork for an extreme rollback of voting rights and are moving forward with legislation to do so in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. After experimenting with lying, promoting violence, and harassing Democrats, the GOP is going back to their old mainstay of suppressing the vote.
- Republicans in Pennsylvania are really doing their worst right now. State Senator Cris Dush introduced legislation that would allow the legislature to overturn the will of the voters by choosing its own slate of Electoral College electors — 24 hours after the violence at the Capitol. Wisconsin Republicans are also trying to upend the Electoral College by reallocating their electoral votes by congressional district rather than statewide.
- The FBI executed search warrants for a number of Tennessee Republican legislators’ homes and offices. We don’t know why yet, but the former Tennessee speaker did resign his post in disgrace after a series of scandals.
- Republican Senator Amanda Chase of Virginia not only attended the insurrection at the Capitol but fundraised off of the coup. She asked for donations because the terrorists are “patriots who love their country.” Disgusting.
- Monday was National Run for Office Day, so we highlighted newly-elected Democratic state lawmakers who ran — and won. Without new, bold leaders taking the plunge to run for office, we couldn’t oust state Republicans who are trying to pass bad bills or overthrow democracy.
- Thanks to the wins of Candi King and Angelia Williams Graves in a pair of special elections for the Virginia House, the state now has the highest number of women serving in the legislature in its history — at 42 in all.
- The Democratic-led Massachusetts legislature overrode the GOP Governor Charlie Baker’s veto and expanded access to abortion in the state — enshrining Roe v. Wade and protecting reproductive rights.
- Colorado Democrats are looking to reduce accidental shootings and suicides by guns in their state by requiring a waiting period for gun buyers, safe storage of firearms, and gun owners to report if their firearms are lost/stolen.
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Luckily, there weren’t more right-wing and white-supremacist terrorist attacks around the inauguration or at state capitols — but we still need to hold the Republicans who undermined our democracy accountable. Anyone with information about a GOP state lawmaker who attended the insurrection or sought to overturn the presidential election results echoing Trump’s lies are encouraged to contact the DLCC’s tipline.
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