Headline: In These Times, 12/6/2024
Anyone who might question the decisive influence of gerrymandering need look no further than the dramatic 2024 down-ballot election results from the eternal battle-ground state of Wisconsin.
In 2022, Wisconsinites elected a Democratic governor, attorney general and secretary of state, yet Republicans retained a 64-35 advantage in the Assembly and a 22-11 majority in the Senate. This happened because Wisconsin Republicans, more than a decade earlier — after hyper-partisan, extreme right-wing Gov. Scott Walker swept to power in the Republican wave of 2010 — had gerrymandered legislative district lines in a way that ensured GOP candidates could not lose the majority of districts.
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In the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump won Wisconsin by the narrowest of margins: 49.7% to Kamala Harris’ 48.9%. In the race for U.S. Senate, Democrat Tammy Baldwin won reelection by an equally narrow margin: 49.4% to Republican banker Eric Hovde’s 48.5%. Yet, state legislative con-tests produced significantly stronger results for Democrats, who picked up 10 seats in the state Assembly and four in the Senate. The Republican advantages collapsed to 18-15 in the Senate and 54-45 in the Assembly. That means Senate Republicans lost their previous super-major ity and, with it, their ability to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
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