- Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed the new congressional district maps on Monday.
- Democrats celebrated the signing as a significant victory in a state where Republicans have controlled the Legislature for more than a decade.
- Democrats are likely to gain seats in the state House and Senate under new maps that take effect heading into the November election.
Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Monday signed new congressional district maps he proposed and passed by Republicans who control the Legislature to avoid having the lines drawn by the liberal-controlled state Supreme Court. .
Democrats saw the signing as a major political victory in the battleground state, where the Legislature has been under tight Republican control for more than a decade, even though Democrats have won 14 of the past 17 statewide elections. I welcomed it.
“I promised that what I wanted was a fair map, not a map that favored one political party or the other, including myself, and that was a really good intention,” Evers said at the state Capitol. He spoke before signing the legislation into law. “Wisconsin is neither a red state nor a blue state. We are a purple state, and I believe our maps should reflect that fundamental fact.
Wisconsin Republican-led Legislature tries second time to draw maps before Supreme Court rules
Under new maps in place for the November election, Democrats are almost certain to win seats in the state House and state Senate. Since 2011, Republicans have operated on maps they drew that are considered the most gerrymandered in the country.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers speaks on January 25, 2024 in Superior, Wisconsin. To avoid becoming a liberal-dominated state, Governor Evers signed into law on February 19th a new congressional district map that he proposed and that was passed by Republicans who control the Legislature. The Supreme Court will draw the line. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Democrats have tried and failed for more than a decade to overturn the maps drawn by Republicans. But Democrats found a winning formula when liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz was elected in August, reversing control of the state Supreme Court.
They filed the lawsuit the day after Protašević joined the court. Republicans argued that Protasiewicz should not hear the case because he said during the campaign that maps drawn by Republicans were “fraudulent” and “unfair.” But she did not deny herself.
Protasiewicz ultimately ruled that the current map is unconstitutional because not all school districts are contiguous and some areas are geographically separated from other parts of the district. The December ruling provided a decisive fourth vote. The court said it would draw the line if Congress could not pass a map signed by Evers.
The court accepted maps from the governor, Democratic and Republican legislators, and three other parties to the redistricting case. A consultant hired by the court determined that the maps submitted by Congress and a conservative law firm were “partisan gerrymanders,” leaving the court to choose from four maps drawn by Democrats.
The Legislature passed the Evers map on Tuesday as the state election board faces a mid-March deadline to enact new maps. Skeptical Democrats voted against the governor’s plan, but many party leaders praised Evers for signing the new maps on Monday.
“Wisconsin will no longer be the most gerrymandered state in the nation,” Democratic Congressional Leader Greta Neubauer said in a statement. Neubauer, who voted against the mapping, added, “This is the beginning of a new era in Wisconsin, where the will of the people will once again be the law of the land.”
Despite voting against the map, Senate Democratic Leader Diane Hesselbein said in a statement that the new map is “a huge victory for the people of Wisconsin.”
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler said the new maps would be “counterproductive” and benefit Democrats because more legislative races will be contested in this year’s statewide presidential and U.S. Senate races.
Republicans said they had no other choice. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said shortly before the bill’s passage that the map was a “huge victory” for Evers and that “Congress will be up for a fight” under the map.
Other Republicans were even harsher.
“The Republican Party is not in a bind,” Republican state Sen. Van Wangard said in a statement. “It was a choice: be stabbed, shot, poisoned, led to the guillotine. We chose to be stabbed so we could live and fight again. ”
Democrats also expressed concern that the bill would prevent the maps from taking effect immediately. Given that the state Supreme Court has already ruled that the old maps are unconstitutional, this creates legal problems for special or recall elections held before November.
“These maps will go into effect immediately upon publication and will be in place by the fall election,” Evers said Monday. He also asked the state Supreme Court to clarify that the map would also be valid for a special election before the November election.
Wisconsin Republicans would maintain a majority on proposed legislation, but their advantage would decline
Under the new map, there would be 15 incumbents running against another incumbent in the House, and a similar combination of six in the Senate. He is the only one of the congressional combinations that pits a Democratic incumbent against another incumbent. In the Senate, the only Democratic combination includes an incumbent who has already decided not to run this fall.
Litigation continues in more than a dozen states over the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislative districts established after the 2020 Census.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is also being asked by Democrats to hear a challenge to the state’s congressional district lines. The lawsuit argues that the court’s decision to order new state legislative maps opens the door to challenges to the congressional maps. Republicans hold six of the eight seats in the state Legislature.
