Oh, my. There is more pushback coming at Trump than he expected. A state has told him to go jump. A *red* state has said no. We would expect Trump doesn’t know quite what to do about this. He can attack MTG. She’s “just” one visible person. He can’t attack much for one of his “own” states. You know those thumbs are helpless, hovering over his phone. Sure, Texas came through to start all of this, but now? Not so much. His ideas and actions are faltering and slowing. From Politico [subscription required] via Raw Story:
President Donald Trump suffered yet more bad news on Friday in his bid to redraw congressional maps in Republican states to give himself extra seats, as Indiana — a state he has spent months trying to pressure into his plan — still appears to be a no-go. According to Politico’s Adam Wren, Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray reiterated the same thing he said weeks earlier: that there aren’t enough voters in the state Senate to move forward with the plan. “Over the last several months, Senate Republicans have given very serious and thoughtful consideration to the concept of redrawing our state’s congressional maps,” Bray said in a statement. “Today, I’m announcing there are not enough votes to move that idea forward, and the Senate will not reconvene in December.”
Oof. And oof again. Can’t be done. This is the first state we’ve heard much about in terms of gerrymandering raging by Trump, although, come to think of it, we haven’t heard much about any of the states Trump pressured. But Indiana says *hard* stop, we can’t do it. Trump must be having a fit, and Indiana doesn’t care if he does. After all the … crap Trump has done, he deserves all the pushback he gets. *Everyone* is pushing back.
So far, Trump has succeeded in pressuring Republicans in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina to enact mid-decade gerrymanders that delete Democratic seats from the map, although all these moves are under litigation, and Missouri activists are collecting signatures for a ballot referendum that would suspend the new map there. While Trump and Vice President JD Vance have made multiple trips to Indiana to sell redistricting, and while the entire GOP congressional delegation and Gov. Mike Braun are behind it, there are just enough GOP state senators against the plan to deny it the votes to proceed.
Busted, boom badda bing!!! There is dissent in the ranks in Indiana, and they are standing their ground. Well, how about that? The GOP is certainly having trouble in its party, let alone the shock triumphs of Democrats lately. And in Congress? Boy, does the GOP have issues. Remember, just in the House, we have people who didn’t sign on to the petition to force a vote on the Epstein file release, but a bunch of them have already said they’ll vote yes. If we only get enough to force the Senate to consider it, that would be one thing. But a veto-proof majority? That would be icing on the cake. So, Trump is getting pushback everywhere he turns. Here’s more to close:
This month, California voters passed Proposition 50, which temporarily suspends that state’s redistricting commission and passes a map that seeks to draw out five GOP seats to offset the new Texas map. In Ohio, where state law required a mid-decade redistricting because its initial map didn’t pass on a bipartisan basis, Democrats cut a deal with the GOP that preserves most of the current Democratic seats. Kansas and New Hampshire Republicans backed off their plans to redistrict, at least for the time being. And a state judge in Utah adopted a map that is expected to create a new Democratic district in Salt Lake City.
WHAM. There we go! Indiana has said no. Will Kansas and New Hampshire even try, now that they know this? That would be marvelous. “If they said no, we can, too.” Why, yes, yes, they can say no. We would enjoy that. In the meantime, Democrats are *finally* on a roll. This is grand news, and we should take advantage of it. What do you think?
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