Why Work on State Races in 2020 (and Always!)

The idea of America is on the line(s)- why should we target state races in a Presidential election year?

Written by Alec Appelbaum

You, and the character in that old Talking Heads song, may ask yourself: how did we get here? We know that Donald and his enablers won power because 80,000 votes in three states swung their way in 2016. We in Sister District also know that state legislatures, drawing Congressional district lines every ten years, have fiddled with the rules to make that sort of swing likelier. Most important, we know that in 2020 we can elect Democrats to state office who will set the lines right. 

See, state legislators draw Congressional district borders, and Republican ones have used a slew of tricks to make politically mixed districts look traffic-light red. They’ll split districts to dilute Democratic votes: a dividing line on an avenue means that the roughly 1000 students at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia, vote in two districts. They’ll cram Democrats into mostly rural districts where likely Republicans outnumber them by a whisker. And they’ll do all that again given the chance.

So we work to turn out Democratic votes in districts that Republicans have come to assume they’ll narrowly win. We focus our calls, postcards, texts and (one of these days) visits on voters who want politicians to champion their good health, good schools and clean air. Most voters do. Most voters also want to vote for someone who can build political coalitions, which politicians learn to do when they serve a constituency with a broad array of views. If the Republicans draw district lines next year after the 2020 census, that array of views figures to remain warped for another decade. And you can imagine what that will spell for future health and policy decisions. 

Alternatively, if the Democrats we’re supporting earn seats and draw maps, politicians will have to listen to constituents and to each other. In that case, they’ll answer the question of how we got here with more candor and more metrics- and that will make us all likelier to get where we all yearn to be. 

Learn more about gerrymandering and sign up to get involved here! Thanks and stay well.