For years, Republicans drew maps so they could never lose their statehouses. Trump has spent more than a year pushing them to rig even more. Last week, everyone saw them lose Congress anyway. That’s only half the story. This edition is about the other half.
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Wisconsin Voters Finally Got Their State Back
Fifteen years ago, Wisconsin Republicans rigged the state’s voting maps so they’d keep control of the legislature no matter how people voted. It worked. In 2018, Democrats running for the state Assembly won 53% of the votes across Wisconsin. They got just 36 of the 99 seats.
Republicans used that power to keep working people from getting health coverage. Gov. Tony Evers kept trying to expand Medicaid, and the GOP killed it every time. Wisconsin is still one of just 10 states that haven’t expanded it.
Then, in December of 2023, the state Supreme Court threw the rigged maps out. With fair maps in 2024, Democrats gained 14 seats. Last Tuesday, they finished the job. They flipped three seats in the Senate and eight in the Assembly, and won both chambers.
They won the governor’s race too. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley beat Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany 54% to 46%. Trump had endorsed Tiffany, saying, “He has always been at my side.” In January, Crowley will become the first Black governor in Wisconsin history, with a Democratic legislature behind him for the first time since 2010. And Republicans won’t be able to block Medicaid expansion anymore.
Republicans had to cheat to “win” in Wisconsin. Once the maps were fair, it took voters two elections to throw them out. As they should.
Missouri Voters Threw Out Trump’s Map By 24 Points
Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has represented the Kansas City area in Missouri since 2005. Last year, Republicans chopped the city into three pieces to push Cleaver out and add one seat to the GOP.
Missourians fought back, led by a group called People Not Politicians. They gathered more than 300,000 signatures to put the map on the ballot. Donald Trump Jr. called the group’s leader, Richard von Glahn, a “leftist nut job.” But von Glahn didn’t back down, saying: “We’re not going to be bullied by these people.”
For most of the last year, Republicans were in court trying to stop that vote. They took it all the way to the US Supreme Court—and lost.
Last Tuesday, voters in the state finally got to choose. They threw the gerrymandered map in the trash—62% voting against.
Cleaver keeps his seat, and across the state, Democrat Fred Wellman beat Republican Rep. Ann Wagner, who’d been in Congress for seven terms. Trump wanted one more Republican seat from Missouri. He ended up with one less.
Georgia Voters Shut The Door On Another Map Grab
Last Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp gave up on rigging Georgia’s maps. Republicans had been working on it since May, but one election night made them quit.
On May 13, Kemp called lawmakers back to the Capitol to redraw the maps for 2028. The likely target was Rep. Sanford Bishop, who represents one of the last rural Black-majority districts in the Deep South. Hundreds of Georgians packed the Capitol on June 17, the day the special session was set to begin. Less than an hour before lawmakers gaveled in, Republicans dropped the plan.
State Rep. Michelle Au warned that day, “Don’t get comfortable. If the GOP is too scared to redo maps now, they’ll call a lame duck redistricting session AFTER elections in November.”
Then Georgia voted. Keisha Lance Bottoms beat billionaire Rick Jackson, who dumped more than $200 million of his own money into the race. Bottoms became the first Black woman ever elected governor of any state.
Democrats also won the state House for the first time since 2004. Lt. Gov.-elect Josh McLaurin said the “resounding rejection of MAGA politics” killed Republicans’ appetite to keep fighting for the maps.
Starting in January, a Republican-rigged map would have to get past a Democratic House and Gov. Bottoms. That’s not going to happen. The people who packed that Capitol in June got the last word.
North Carolina Took Back The House Republicans Rigged
On Election Day, North Carolina’s Republican House Speaker Destin Hall told a reporter, “I’m confident that we’re going to maintain the majority.” That night, Democrats flipped the House for the first time in 16 years. Unofficial results give them 71 of the 120 seats.
One of the sweetest wins belonged to Democrat Ken McCool, who beat Tricia Cotham by 14 points. Cotham was elected as a Democrat, then switched parties in 2023 and handed Republicans a supermajority.
They put it to work right after Democrat Josh Stein won the governor’s race in 2024. While western North Carolina was still digging out from Hurricane Helene, Republicans passed a bill of more than 130 pages and called it hurricane relief. Only the first 13 pages dealt with the hurricane. Much of the rest stripped power from Stein, including his power to appoint the state elections board. Stein’s predecessor, Gov. Roy Cooper, vetoed it, and Republicans overrode him. Stein called it “a power grab, not hurricane relief.”
Last week, Stein admitted he didn’t see a win this big coming. “Did I think they would get to 71 or 72 seats? Never did I think that was possible,” he said. He told Republicans to skip a lame duck this year, because “the voters spoke pretty daggum loud last night.”
Starting in January, a Republican power grab can’t even make it out of the House.
We only have 54 days left of a Republican majority in Congress, and Trump is already trying to rush through judges before Democrats take over.
But our Lame Duck Watch is on every move they make. We’re running an enormous pressure campaign against anything they try this month or next. Over the last two years we organized countless calls and sent more than 918,000 letters from constituents to their Reps and Senators.
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Onward!
Scott
What win in your state do you think should be getting more attention?
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