OBAMA URGES VOTERS TO FOCUS ON DOWN- BALLOT RACES TO COMBAT GERRYMANDERING
CNN reports 24/09/2020 : Former President Barack Obama urged voters to focus on down ballot races in new remarks published Thursday, arguing that while the presidential race gets the most attention, it is down-ballot races that could have the greatest impact on politically motivated gerrymandering.
The video represents the latest attempt by top Democrats to focus attention on down- ballot races, like those for state legislatures across the country. The party hopes that they can take control of the handful of state legislatures in November, wins that could be key because the state bodies elected in 2020 will play major roles in redrawing the congressional and legislative maps in 2021.
“You have heard a lot about the presidential race, maybe too much,” Obama says in a video foNowThis News, “but there is a lot more that will be on the ballot this fall.”
Obama adds; “In this election, the state leaders we elect will help redraw electoral districts all across the country.”
Obama is now new to the fight over redirecting and has focused a position of his post- presidency work on the issue, including by folding his organizing for Action Group into the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group run by his former attorney general, Eric Holder, that looks to link Democratic issues with the need to take on gerrymandering.
“Obama has said this is an all hands on deck moment , and one of the main drivers is redistricting that will happen based on November’s results,” Eric Schultz, an Obama adviser , said ” Now more than ever, we need to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. The President campaign generally gets most of the attention, but President Obama believes these other races are mission- critical.”
The former President says in the video he doesn’t think people ” Completely appreciate how much gerrymandering affects the outcome” of elections. The Video then notes how Republicans swept into control in key states during the 3010 election, allowing them to redraw maps in places like Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Ohio.
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