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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDemocrats plan major investments in state legislative races
A top Democratic group will spend as much as $50 million trying to win back state legislative seats this year, a record-breaking investment that reflects the urgency of a pending redistricting and reapportionment process that will determine control of Congress for the next decade.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) will target legislative seats in seven Republican-controlled states, where the party is within just a handful of seats of reclaiming control of one or both legislative chambers, said Jessica Post, the groups president. Most of the states on the legislative chessboard are also key to both parties paths to the White House.
We have this generational opportunity to change the composition of state legislatures while also building out this incredible infrastructure across the country to help the presidential campaign from the ground up, Post said.
Democrats need to pick up just five seats to win back the North Carolina state Senate, and six seats to reclaim control of the state House. In Pennsylvania, Democrats are four seats from taking back the state Senate, and nine seats away from a House majority. They need four seats to flip the Michigan state House and the Iowa state House, two to reclaim the Minnesota state Senate and nine more seats to win control of the Texas state House.
The party is two seats away from controlling the Arizona state House for the first time since 1964, and three seats away from winning the state Senate for the first time since 1992.
The opportunities Democrats see this year reflect the fact that the party is still clawing its way back from the hole they dug for themselves in 2010, when the Tea Party tidal wave handed the GOP control of dozens of state legislative chambers. Republicans used those well-timed wins to draw district lines in their favor in states across the country, cementing control of many state legislatures and the U.S. House of Representatives for years to follow.
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/478615-democrats-plan-major-investments-in-state-legislative-races
Initech
(100,104 posts)All elections matter and it doesn't matter what the position is. If we want real change in this country we have to start at the local level and work our way up.
yellowdogintexas
(22,270 posts)which is the last red metropolitan area in Texas.
The districts all went for Beto in 2018 and the Republican candidates carried them by 8 points or less. They can be flipped.
Tarrant county is Ground Zero in the newest Swing State.
Fort Worth is already heavily blue and we already have 3 Democratic State Representatives and a State Senator as well as a Democratic Congressman.
Voter registration is up, blockwalking every weekend and every House District has an organizing team, plus we know we will see a lot of Beto as he works to get these candidates elected.