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Saving democracy starts right now, in 2022 [1]
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Date: 2022-10-11
The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet scheduled when it will hear Moore v. Harper, the case that could give state legislatures total authority over federal elections, unchecked by the other branches of state government, even by state supreme courts. That’s the direct path to Republicans determining the outcome of elections regardless of the popular vote. They would have the final say in drawing congressional districts and in choosing the slate of electors for the presidential Electoral College.
This is one of the theories that Trump lawyers were relying on in 2020, one they took to the Supreme Court in December of that year. The court did not take Trump’s case, but accepted one from North Carolina challenging that state supreme court’s power to adjudicate redistricting. Before Trump and McConnell seized the Supreme Court, a case pushing this crackpot theory would never have been put on the docket. With the solid 5-4 (and wavering 6-3) majority, the MAGA court is at least sympathetic to the theory. We’ll see if five of them are unprincipled enough to actually buy it.
Even apart from the Court, though, there have to be Democratic officials in place in key states to protect our elections: Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin. These officials—attorney general, secretary of state, and supreme court justices—all have a role in ensuring that voting laws are equitably applied and followed, that the vote counts are secure and valid, and that the will of the voter is followed.
To that end, Daily Kos has endorsed 17 Democratic candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, and state supreme court across eight crucial states. We’ve also endorsed 19 candidates in races in two of the most important states—Michigan and Pennsylvania—where Democrats are poised to flip state houses.
But of course we’re not the only ones. The Republican State Leadership Committee is targeting both state supreme court seats and legislative seats. They’ve raised $71 million in largely dark money this year to pour into the project. Fair Courts America, part of a big extremist dark money network under the umbrella of Restoration of America, is going to spend $22.5 million just on judicial races.
More than $12 million, most of it dark money, has been spent on electing Republican secretaries of state, 11 of whom are election deniers.
The majority of Republicans running in these key races and for state house seats are election deniers, so it’s not one bit hyperbolic to worry about the future of democracy. In their hands, it would be toast.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/11/2128171/-GOP-U-S-Supreme-Court-put-democracy-on-the-line-in-2022-in-the-states-Help-save-it
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