The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Daniel Donner, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
● WA Redistricting: Washington's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state's bipartisan redistricting commission had "substantially complied" with state law requiring it to transmit new maps to the legislature by the legal deadline of midnight on Nov. 15, despite the fact that the panel only voted to do so after the clock had struck midnight.
That final vote took place after a chaotic meeting during which commissioners appeared to violate state transparency laws by huddling in private, then sought to approve maps that had never been shared with the public—or even with the entire panel, since one member, Democrat Brady Walkinshaw, later said he hadn't seen the plans before they were shipped.
The commission blamed delays in receiving census data and unspecified "technical challenges" for its failure, though the Seattle Times reported that "ome in and around the commission" blamed Walkinshaw for dragging out the process in a deliberate effort to punt the redistricting process to the high court. Nevertheless, the day after the blown deadline, the panel at last publicized its maps and begged the Supreme Court—on Twitter, no less—to consider them.
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The justices did the commissioners one better by saying they had in fact fulfilled their duties, thereby declining to have the court assume responsibility for redistricting. As a result, the maps will now go before state lawmakers, who can make minor modifications (amounting to no more than 2% of the population of any district) on a two-thirds vote. The new districts will automatically become law 30 days after the start of the legislature's next session.
Ultimately, for all this sturm und drang, the maps change very little. Almost every congressional district retains its current presidential performance, according to Dave's Redistricting App, including the two most competitive seats, Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier's 8th and Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler's 3rd. The legislative map also retains the status quo, with Joe Biden winning 33 districts to 16 for Donald Trump; the median district also supported Biden by a margin very close to his statewide performance. (Washington uses the same map for both chambers, with each district electing one senator and two representatives.)
Friday's ruling may not be the last word, though. The Supreme Court was careful to note that it was only addressing the question of whether the commission had met its legal deadline and would not "not render any opinion on the plan's compliance with any statutory and constitutional requirements" aside from that. There's a possibility of further litigation, in fact, because of concerns about whether commissioners were required to draw a legislative district in the Yakima Valley where Latino voters could elect their preferred candidate.
● MN Redistricting: Minnesota Republicans, who control the state Senate, have released congressional and legislative proposals; Democrats, who run the House, previously shared maps of their own last month. Given the low likelihood of a compromise, though, it's probable that the courts will once against take over the redistricting process in Minnesota, just as they did a decade ago.
● RI Redistricting: Rhode Island's Democratic-run legislature has put out new legislative maps, though lawmakers have not yet released a congressional plan.
● AL-Gov, AL-Sen: Republican Lynda Blanchard will reportedly drop her bid for Alabama's open Senate seat and instead launch a campaign to challenge Gov. Kay Ivey in next year's primary, according to unnamed sources who spoke with CNN. Blanchard, a wealthy former ambassador to Slovenia under Donald Trump, has been publicly considering such a switch since September in the face of persistent low single-digit polling despite $5 million in self-funding.
Trump himself has apparently been urging Blanchard to make the move out of personal pique with Ivey, though this time, it's not about the Big Lie. Rather, CNN says, Trump blames Ivey for the cancellation of a July 3 rally he wanted to hold in Mobile.
● MA-Gov: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who's reportedly been considering a bid for Massachusetts' open governorship, declined to rule out a campaign in a Friday interview with CNN, saying only, "I'm focused right now on what I'm doing here at the Department of Labor at the current moment." Prior to joining Joe Biden's cabinet in March, Walsh served as mayor of Boston for just shy of two terms, first narrowly winning office in 2013, then easily securing re-election four years later before stepping down earlier this year.
Another Democrat, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, also isn't ruling out the race, saying in a statement, "I love the job I have. If I intend to do something different, I'll let you know."
● RI-Gov: State House Minority Leader Blake Filippi, who was reportedly "under pressure" from fellow Republicans to run for governor, has announced that he will instead seek re-election. So far, the only notable Republican in the race is David Darlington, a former member of the Rhode Island Bridge and Turnpike Authority, while Democrats have a busy multi-way primary.
● CA-34: Former prosecutor David Kim, who came surprisingly close to unseating Rep. Jimmy Gomez in last year's all-Democratic general election, has announced he'll run once again. Despite outspending Kim better than 15 to 1, Gomez secured re-election by a slim 53-47 margin.
Kim's unexpected strength may in part have come thanks to an endorsement from the nonprofit created by Andrew Yang, who helped popularize the idea of a universal basic income that Kim vocally supported. Kim may have also benefited from the sizable Korean American population in California's 34th District, dark blue turf located in downtown Los Angeles that includes the neighborhood known as Koreatown. Around 43% of the district traces its origins to Mexico, as Gomez does, while about 8% are of Korean ancestry, making this the most heavily Korean American district in the country, though these demographics could shift in redistricting.
● NC-07: Republican state Rep. Jon Hardister, who'd been considering a bid for North Carolina's open 7th District, has announced that he will instead seek re-election. McClatchy reporter Danielle Battaglia suggests that Hardister's decision "could be a sign" that former Rep. Mark Walker, who is currently trailing in the polls in his bid for Senate, might drop down to wage a comeback campaign, a prospect Walker said last month he was considering. So far, no notable Republicans have entered the race for the 7th, safely Republican turf that would have voted 57-41 for Donald Trump.
● NH-01: Sophomore Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas announced on Friday that he'll seek re-election next year, despite an overt Republican effort to target him in redistricting.
Last month, a committee in New Hampshire's GOP-run House advanced a new congressional map on a party-line vote that would make the most radical changes to the state's district lines in 140 years. Following the 1880 census, when the Granite State dropped from three districts to two, mapmakers have consistently split the state between an eastern 1st District anchored by Pappas' hometown of Manchester that includes the Atlantic coastline and a 2nd District that takes in the state's more sparsely populated western and northern portion—a historical divide you can see illustrated in this animated GIF.
Under the GOP's new map, however, the 2nd District would now envelop the 1st, running along the state's entire western border with Vermont and the entire eastern border with Maine, all the way down to the Atlantic ocean. The goal is to make the 1st as red as possible: Under the current lines, it backed Joe Biden by a 52-46 margin, but once Republicans finish gerrymandering, it'll be transformed into a seat that would have voted for Donald Trump 50-48.
That's by no means unwinnable for Pappas, though it will make an already difficult midterm race that much harder. Republicans, unsurprisingly, have been salivating at the prospect of retaking this seat, and a number of candidates have been running here for some time in anticipation their colleagues in the legislature would upend the map. The top prospects include former TV reporter Gail Huff Brown (the wife of former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown) and former Trump aide Matt Mowers, who as the GOP's nominee in 2022 lost to Pappas 51-46.
● OH-01: Democrats in both D.C. and Ohio are trying to persuade Cincinnati City Councilman Greg Landsman to challenge Republican Rep. Steve Chabot in the 1st Congressional District, reports Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Jason Williams, and Landsman hasn't ruled the idea out. Landsman acknowledged the recruitment efforts but would only say, "I'm focused on helping with the transition to a new city council starting in January." Williams adds that Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece has also been weighing a campaign, though she "declined comment" on the matter.
Under the GOP's new map, the 1st would have voted for Joe Biden by a narrow 50-48 margin, making it slightly bluer than the previous version, which backed Donald Trump 51-48. However, the district remains badly gerrymandered, linking the city of Cincinnati to deep red Warren County via a slender isthmus just one mile wide while selectively portioning off outlying bluer chunks of Hamilton County (where Cincy is based) to two other deep red districts.
● TX-15: Wilson County Justice of the Peace Sara Canady has entered the GOP primary for Texas' 15th Congressional District in South Texas, taking aim at 2020 nominee Monica De La Cruz over her support from national Republicans.
● TX-35: Former San Antonio City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran looks poised to enter the race for Texas' open 35th Congressional District, saying she's "seriously considering" a bid and has "an announcement" planned for Dec. 11. Viagran would be the first notable Democrat from the San Antonio area to enter the race for this safely blue seat; every other prominent contender so far hails from Austin, at the other end of this extremely gerrymandered district.
● VA State House: A recount in Virginia's 85th State House District certified Republican Karen Greenhalgh as the winner over Democratic Del. Alex Askew on Friday, confirming the GOP's takeover of the chamber. Following the November elections, Republicans won or led in 52 contests and Democrats in 48, but two races—Askew's, and Democratic Del. Martha Mugler's in the 91st—were close enough to require recounts, leaving open the slim chance of a 50-50 tie.
But while Askew picked up 12 votes during the review, Greenhalgh still prevailed by 115 votes. A recount in the 91st, where Mugler trails Republican A.C. Cordoza by 94 votes, is scheduled for next week, but even if that result were to flip, the GOP would still retain control of the House.
Leading Off
● WA Redistricting: Washington's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state's bipartisan redistricting commission had "substantially complied" with state law requiring it to transmit new maps to the legislature by the legal deadline of midnight on Nov. 15, despite the fact that the panel only voted to do so after the clock had struck midnight.
That final vote took place after a chaotic meeting during which commissioners appeared to violate state transparency laws by huddling in private, then sought to approve maps that had never been shared with the public—or even with the entire panel, since one member, Democrat Brady Walkinshaw, later said he hadn't seen the plans before they were shipped.
The commission blamed delays in receiving census data and unspecified "technical challenges" for its failure, though the Seattle Times reported that "
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The justices did the commissioners one better by saying they had in fact fulfilled their duties, thereby declining to have the court assume responsibility for redistricting. As a result, the maps will now go before state lawmakers, who can make minor modifications (amounting to no more than 2% of the population of any district) on a two-thirds vote. The new districts will automatically become law 30 days after the start of the legislature's next session.
Ultimately, for all this sturm und drang, the maps change very little. Almost every congressional district retains its current presidential performance, according to Dave's Redistricting App, including the two most competitive seats, Democratic Rep. Kim Schrier's 8th and Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler's 3rd. The legislative map also retains the status quo, with Joe Biden winning 33 districts to 16 for Donald Trump; the median district also supported Biden by a margin very close to his statewide performance. (Washington uses the same map for both chambers, with each district electing one senator and two representatives.)
Friday's ruling may not be the last word, though. The Supreme Court was careful to note that it was only addressing the question of whether the commission had met its legal deadline and would not "not render any opinion on the plan's compliance with any statutory and constitutional requirements" aside from that. There's a possibility of further litigation, in fact, because of concerns about whether commissioners were required to draw a legislative district in the Yakima Valley where Latino voters could elect their preferred candidate.
Redistricting
● MN Redistricting: Minnesota Republicans, who control the state Senate, have released congressional and legislative proposals; Democrats, who run the House, previously shared maps of their own last month. Given the low likelihood of a compromise, though, it's probable that the courts will once against take over the redistricting process in Minnesota, just as they did a decade ago.
● RI Redistricting: Rhode Island's Democratic-run legislature has put out new legislative maps, though lawmakers have not yet released a congressional plan.
Governors
● AL-Gov, AL-Sen: Republican Lynda Blanchard will reportedly drop her bid for Alabama's open Senate seat and instead launch a campaign to challenge Gov. Kay Ivey in next year's primary, according to unnamed sources who spoke with CNN. Blanchard, a wealthy former ambassador to Slovenia under Donald Trump, has been publicly considering such a switch since September in the face of persistent low single-digit polling despite $5 million in self-funding.
Trump himself has apparently been urging Blanchard to make the move out of personal pique with Ivey, though this time, it's not about the Big Lie. Rather, CNN says, Trump blames Ivey for the cancellation of a July 3 rally he wanted to hold in Mobile.
● MA-Gov: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who's reportedly been considering a bid for Massachusetts' open governorship, declined to rule out a campaign in a Friday interview with CNN, saying only, "I'm focused right now on what I'm doing here at the Department of Labor at the current moment." Prior to joining Joe Biden's cabinet in March, Walsh served as mayor of Boston for just shy of two terms, first narrowly winning office in 2013, then easily securing re-election four years later before stepping down earlier this year.
Another Democrat, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, also isn't ruling out the race, saying in a statement, "I love the job I have. If I intend to do something different, I'll let you know."
● RI-Gov: State House Minority Leader Blake Filippi, who was reportedly "under pressure" from fellow Republicans to run for governor, has announced that he will instead seek re-election. So far, the only notable Republican in the race is David Darlington, a former member of the Rhode Island Bridge and Turnpike Authority, while Democrats have a busy multi-way primary.
House
● CA-34: Former prosecutor David Kim, who came surprisingly close to unseating Rep. Jimmy Gomez in last year's all-Democratic general election, has announced he'll run once again. Despite outspending Kim better than 15 to 1, Gomez secured re-election by a slim 53-47 margin.
Kim's unexpected strength may in part have come thanks to an endorsement from the nonprofit created by Andrew Yang, who helped popularize the idea of a universal basic income that Kim vocally supported. Kim may have also benefited from the sizable Korean American population in California's 34th District, dark blue turf located in downtown Los Angeles that includes the neighborhood known as Koreatown. Around 43% of the district traces its origins to Mexico, as Gomez does, while about 8% are of Korean ancestry, making this the most heavily Korean American district in the country, though these demographics could shift in redistricting.
● NC-07: Republican state Rep. Jon Hardister, who'd been considering a bid for North Carolina's open 7th District, has announced that he will instead seek re-election. McClatchy reporter Danielle Battaglia suggests that Hardister's decision "could be a sign" that former Rep. Mark Walker, who is currently trailing in the polls in his bid for Senate, might drop down to wage a comeback campaign, a prospect Walker said last month he was considering. So far, no notable Republicans have entered the race for the 7th, safely Republican turf that would have voted 57-41 for Donald Trump.
● NH-01: Sophomore Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas announced on Friday that he'll seek re-election next year, despite an overt Republican effort to target him in redistricting.
Last month, a committee in New Hampshire's GOP-run House advanced a new congressional map on a party-line vote that would make the most radical changes to the state's district lines in 140 years. Following the 1880 census, when the Granite State dropped from three districts to two, mapmakers have consistently split the state between an eastern 1st District anchored by Pappas' hometown of Manchester that includes the Atlantic coastline and a 2nd District that takes in the state's more sparsely populated western and northern portion—a historical divide you can see illustrated in this animated GIF.
Under the GOP's new map, however, the 2nd District would now envelop the 1st, running along the state's entire western border with Vermont and the entire eastern border with Maine, all the way down to the Atlantic ocean. The goal is to make the 1st as red as possible: Under the current lines, it backed Joe Biden by a 52-46 margin, but once Republicans finish gerrymandering, it'll be transformed into a seat that would have voted for Donald Trump 50-48.
That's by no means unwinnable for Pappas, though it will make an already difficult midterm race that much harder. Republicans, unsurprisingly, have been salivating at the prospect of retaking this seat, and a number of candidates have been running here for some time in anticipation their colleagues in the legislature would upend the map. The top prospects include former TV reporter Gail Huff Brown (the wife of former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown) and former Trump aide Matt Mowers, who as the GOP's nominee in 2022 lost to Pappas 51-46.
● OH-01: Democrats in both D.C. and Ohio are trying to persuade Cincinnati City Councilman Greg Landsman to challenge Republican Rep. Steve Chabot in the 1st Congressional District, reports Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Jason Williams, and Landsman hasn't ruled the idea out. Landsman acknowledged the recruitment efforts but would only say, "I'm focused on helping with the transition to a new city council starting in January." Williams adds that Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece has also been weighing a campaign, though she "declined comment" on the matter.
Under the GOP's new map, the 1st would have voted for Joe Biden by a narrow 50-48 margin, making it slightly bluer than the previous version, which backed Donald Trump 51-48. However, the district remains badly gerrymandered, linking the city of Cincinnati to deep red Warren County via a slender isthmus just one mile wide while selectively portioning off outlying bluer chunks of Hamilton County (where Cincy is based) to two other deep red districts.
● TX-15: Wilson County Justice of the Peace Sara Canady has entered the GOP primary for Texas' 15th Congressional District in South Texas, taking aim at 2020 nominee Monica De La Cruz over her support from national Republicans.
● TX-35: Former San Antonio City Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran looks poised to enter the race for Texas' open 35th Congressional District, saying she's "seriously considering" a bid and has "an announcement" planned for Dec. 11. Viagran would be the first notable Democrat from the San Antonio area to enter the race for this safely blue seat; every other prominent contender so far hails from Austin, at the other end of this extremely gerrymandered district.
Legislatures
● VA State House: A recount in Virginia's 85th State House District certified Republican Karen Greenhalgh as the winner over Democratic Del. Alex Askew on Friday, confirming the GOP's takeover of the chamber. Following the November elections, Republicans won or led in 52 contests and Democrats in 48, but two races—Askew's, and Democratic Del. Martha Mugler's in the 91st—were close enough to require recounts, leaving open the slim chance of a 50-50 tie.
But while Askew picked up 12 votes during the review, Greenhalgh still prevailed by 115 votes. A recount in the 91st, where Mugler trails Republican A.C. Cordoza by 94 votes, is scheduled for next week, but even if that result were to flip, the GOP would still retain control of the House.