Rep. Mike Lawler:
Well, this is an issue that has been going on for decades, obviously, the gerrymandering of our congressional maps in red states and blue states.
And when you look at the fact that last November only 35 seats were decided by five points or less, that tells you everything you need to know about the fact that most seats are not competitive. They are solely won or lost based on the primary. And so, from my vantage point, coming from a district that has 80,000 more Democrats than Republicans, I obviously am very focused on a general election.
And I think the reality is our country would be better served and Congress would be better served if more seats were competitive. So this effort that we have seen — and, by the way, it didn’t just start with Texas. New York did mid-decade redistricting last year. They went to court and forced a new map and took the opportunity to redraw the lines and pick up three seats in the process.
So this idea somehow that this just started with Texas is a joke, especially when you look at the fact that we just had a Supreme Court race in Wisconsin that was basically run on the idea that there would be redistricting in Wisconsin. So this is mutually assured destruction. We’re seeing Democrats and Republicans seek to gain advantage through the redistricting process.
And, from my perspective, it’s wrong. And that’s why I’m introducing legislation to ban gerrymandering nationwide. This is not how the process should be fought out. We should have competitive districts based on communities of interest, and ultimately the voters, not the politicians, should decide who is in the majority.
