AOC requires extra Democrat-leaning states to redraw election maps after Supreme Court ruling and GOP push | EUROtoday

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) urged that Democratic-leaning states reply to Republican efforts to gerrymander their congressional maps by doing the identical.

Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist congresswoman, made the feedback after the Supreme Court considerably weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“The Democratic caucus has tried to pass nonpartisan gerrymandering for ten years,” Ocasio-Cortez instructed The Independent. “Republicans have rejected it, and so we have to all abide by the same rules.”

Section 2 particularly prohibits states and localities from utilizing “any voting standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court introduced that Louisiana relied to closely on race when it redrew its congressional map in 2024.

That primarily opens the door to Republican-leaning states to redraw their congressional maps to increase the variety of Republicans with out concern of violating the Voting Rights Act.

Already, Texas and North Carolina have redrawn their congressional maps on the request of President Donald Trump. Republicans hope that by redrawing their congressional maps in the midst of the last decade, they will keep away from shedding the bulk within the House of Representatives.

“And so if Republicans are going to redraw North Carolina, if they’re going to redraw Texas, if they’re going to redraw and gerrymander every one of their states, then unfortunately, we have to provide balance to that until we get to the day where we can all finally agree to put this behind us and pass nonpartisan gerrymandering federally,” Ocasio-Cortez mentioned.

In addition to Texas and North Carolina, Republicans have tried to redraw the congressional maps in states like Missouri, although a Trump-backed effort to take action in Indiana failed.

But the efforts shouldn’t be stopping. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis referred to as a brand new session of the Republican-controlled legislature to redraw the congressional map and create 4 new Republican-leaning districts.

In response, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries mentioned he would problem the trouble.

“While Democrats have given voters the choice whether or not to respond to Donald Trump’s mid-decade gerrymandering scheme at the ballot box, Republicans are drawing maps behind closed doors in the dead of night,” Jeffries mentioned in an announcement earlier this week. “The DeSantis Dummymander will not stand. See you in Court.”

Historically, Democrats have supported nonpartisan redistricting. But Republican efforts have prompted them to help short-term gerrymandering in states which have nonpartisan redistricting boards.

In November, California voted on a poll measure so as to add 5 new Democratic-leaning seats in response to Texas, whereas final week, Virginia did an analogous measure.