Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signs new legislative maps into law following support from the Republican legislature.
The support from the GOP comes as Republican lawmakers wish to avoid having the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court draw the lines. Democratic lawmakers hailed the signing as a major political victory in the swing state.
Wisconsin is the region where the Legislature has been firmly under Republican control for more than a decade even as Democrats won 14 of the last 17 statewide elections. In a statement prior to signing the maps into law, Evers said that the fair maps he promised were for both parties, not just his.
The governor added that his state is not a red state or a blue state but a purple state, noting that the maps should reflect that basic fact. Democratic lawmakers are almost certain to gain seats in the state Assembly and state Senate under the new legislative maps, as per the Associated Press.
The new maps will be in place for the November election as Republicans have been operating since 2011 under maps that they drew that were recognized as among the most gerrymandered in the United States.
For more than a decade, Democrats have unsuccessfully tried to overturn the Republican-drawn legislative maps. However, it wasn't until control of the state Supreme Court flipped last August that the left found a winning formula for their efforts.
Democratic lawmakers filed a lawsuit the day after liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz joined the court. On the other hand, Republicans argued that Protasiewicz should not hear the lawsuit because she said during her campaign that the GOP-drawn maps were "rigged" and "unfair." However, she did not recuse herself from the case.
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Marking a Shift in State Politics
The chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Ben Wikler, said that the order for the new maps marked a shift in the plate tectonics of the state's politics. He added that this would have national implications because Wisconsin is the tipping-point state for the United States, according to the New York Times.
Wikler also said that he believes that the map changes would help drive up turnout in the state's elections in the fall. This is with districts that were previously non-competitive suddenly becoming competitive.
The chairman noted that it would flood new energy in the state's politics in a way that he thinks would help the pro-democracy candidates. In 2024, this means Democrats, from the presidential campaign to the Senate campaign to House races and anything else.
The Republican speaker of the State Assembly, Robin Vos, issued a statement on Monday where he seemed to frame the new legislative maps as a limited victory for the GOP. He said that Evers "signed the most Republican-leaning maps out of all the Democrat-gerrymandered maps being considered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Vos added that they sent the governor those maps not because they are fair but because the people of Wisconsin deserve certainty in state government. He added that the GOP will prove that it can win on any map because it has better policy ideas, said the Washington Post.
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