Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed new legislative maps Monday that could drastically change the state's balance of power, giving Democrats a chance to win control of the state's Legislature for the first time in more than a decade.
“When I promised that I wanted fair maps — not maps that favored one party or the other — I meant it,” said Mr. Trump, who drew the maps after the state Supreme Court ordered new ones. Evers said in a statement.
While the state has been a battleground state in national races, Republicans, with the help of heavily gerrymandered maps, control both of the state's legislative chambers. Since 2011. They now hold two-thirds of the seats in both the Senate and the Assembly.
But Democrats will pick up seats under the new maps used during the November election. The maps outline near-splits between Democratic and Republican-leaning districts: 45 lean Democratic, 46 lean Republican, and eight could be a tossup. An analysis from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Many incumbents are drawn to each other's districts, Associated Press reported.
“Wisconsin is not a red state or a blue state — we're a purple state, and I believe our maps should reflect that basic fact,” Mr. Evers said. “Today is a victory not for me or any political party, but for our state and the people of Wisconsin, a decade of much-needed and well-demanded of us as elected officials.”
Although Democrats have long sought to overturn previous maps, their hopes were renewed when the state Supreme Court flipped to a 4-to-3 liberal majority in August after the inauguration of liberal former Milwaukee District Judge Janet Protasiewicz. Justice Protasievich won the most expensive judicial election in US history in April when he openly criticized the Republican-drawn maps and argued they were “bad”.
A day after his inauguration, progressive groups sued the maps. In December, the court ruled 4 to 3 that Republican-leaning legislative maps were unconstitutional and ordered new maps before the 2024 election. The court said that if the Governor and the Legislature did not prepare new maps, the court would decide on the new map.
“This is a shift in the plate tectonics of Wisconsin politics, and it will have national implications,” said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wigler.
Mr. Wickler said he hopes the map changes will help boost turnout in the state's elections in the fall, when previously uncontested districts suddenly become so.
“It's going to infuse new energy into our politics, and I think it's going to help pro-Democrat candidates, I mean Democrats in 2024, from presidential campaigns to Senate campaigns and House races and anything else,” he said.
Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the state legislature, issued a statement Monday in which he appeared to frame the new maps as a limited win for Republicans, saying Mr. Evers said he “signed more pro-Republican maps than any Democrat.” gerrymandered maps considered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
“This legislation ends the sham of a lawsuit designed to provide judicially Democratic blueprints for lawsuits funded by liberal special interest groups,” said Mr. Voss said. In the fall, he said, Republicans will “prove that we can win on any map because we have great policy ideas.”
The new maps passed both houses of the Wisconsin Legislature last week. Mostly aided by Republicans Instead the liberal-controlled court is reluctant to judge them. In January, Mr. Evers He vetoed a collection of different maps Favored by Republicans.
There are also Democrats in the state He sued the state congressional map And, shortly after the court called for new statewide maps, they asked to take up the matter. Six of the state's eight congressional seats are held by Republicans. A case challenging those maps is pending, and the Supreme Court has not said whether it will weigh in.
