• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Gay Pride
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Film/TV/Stream
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Tech/Science
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox

U.S. redistricting forces midterm battles between incumbents

Towleroad May 19, 2022 Leave a Comment

Published by
Reuters
522542 origin 1

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -U.S. Representative Lucy McBath has been a rising Democratic star since 2018, when she ended 40 years of Republican dominance in a suburban Atlanta seat.

Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux staked her own claim to fame in 2020, when she captured the district next door and became the only Democratic House candidate in the country to flip a Republican seat that year.

But a new Republican-drawn congressional map aimed at eliminating one of their seats now has the two women squaring off for their party’s nomination in Georgia’s reconfigured 7th district. That ensures only one will advance from Tuesday’s primary to November’s general election, to the irritation of activists who spent years turning Atlanta’s suburbs Democratic.

“I was really frustrated with the process of redistricting,” said Mary Baron, a retired attorney who volunteered for McBath’s two previous runs and donated to Bourdeaux’s campaign. “It seemed clear to me that they created it to put a Republican into office.”

The race is one of a half-dozen around the United States in which redistricting has pushed incumbents from the same party to run against one another, an awkward result of the once-a-decade process of drawing new congressional lines.

The rare contests often serve as a proxy for the larger tensions roiling each party – which, this time around, means establishment Democrats and Republicans competing against the progressive left and Trump-dominated right.

In New York this week, a court-appointed special master released a draft congressional map, after the state’s top court invalidated a Democratic-drawn plan as an illegal gerrymander.

The new proposal could pit two pairs of Democratic incumbents against one another, including powerful representatives Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, who have each spent three decades in Congress and will face off this August in what will be a massively expensive primary.

INTRAPARTY TENSIONS

In some states, such as Georgia, the intraparty contests stem from a deliberately partisan effort by one party to draw favorable lines.

In other cases, the match-ups are an inevitable outcome of redistricting. West Virginia lost one of its three seats as a result of sluggish population growth, forcing two incumbents to face off. Republican U.S. Representative Alex Mooney defeated fellow Republican congressman David McKinley in last week’s primary election.

In Illinois, Republican first-term U.S. Representative Mary Miller – endorsed by former President Donald Trump – is going after fellow Republican Rodney Davis, who has served a decade in the House.

Miller, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, has attacked Davis for his vote in favor of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Davis, who is seen as a more traditional Republican, has the backing of the state’s party infrastructure.

New York’s new map immediately highlighted the antagonism between the Democratic Party’s establishment and left wings. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the national Democratic Party’s congressional campaign arm, announced within minutes of the map’s release that he would run in a new district made up mostly of liberal Black Democrat Mondaire Jones’ seat.

Jones criticized the decision in an interview with Politico but has not said whether he will challenge Maloney. Jones could also run against Jamaal Bowman, a fellow first-term Black progressive Democrat, who occupies a neighboring district.

The Georgia race has been particularly galling for Democrats, given that McBath and Bourdeaux’s victories were notched in suburban Atlanta – ground zero for President Joe Biden’s surprising statewide win in 2020, as well as for twin Senate runoff elections in 2021 that gave the party control of Congress.

Bourdeaux has attacked McBath for abandoning her district, which was redrawn to be heavily Republican, rather than fighting to keep it.

“Everything that we have been fighting for, you have been undermining by coming and fighting me here,” Bourdeaux said at a recent debate.

McBath has responded by noting that polls suggest she is leading the race, arguing that shows voters know her and the work she has done on their behalf.

(Reporting by Joseph AxEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Rosalba O’Brien)

522542 522542 origin 1 1
522542 522542 origin 1 2

Topics: Aaon, Art, Law/Justice, Media More Posts About: Alex Mooney, Carolyn Maloney, David McKinley, Donald Trump, Freedom Caucus, Jamaal Bowman, Jerry Nadler, Joe Biden, Lucy McBath, Mondaire Jones

Related Posts
  • Landmark gun-safety bill heads to U.S. House after Senate passage
  • New York officials slam ‘shocking’ Supreme Court gun ruling
  • Jan. 6 Capitol riot hearing to focus on Trump pressure on Justice Dept
  • Analysis-Trump’s justices decisive in long campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade

    Analysis-Trump’s justices decisive in long campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade

    Published by Reuters By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Seventeen months after leaving office, former President Donald Trump delivered on a campaign promise when the conservative U.S. Supreme Court majority he cemented overturned the 1973 Roe …Read More »
  • U.S. Supreme Court overturns abortion rights landmark

    U.S. Supreme Court overturns abortion rights landmark

    Published by Reuters By Lawrence Hurley and Andrew Chung WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took the dramatic step of overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized a woman’s constitutional …Read More »
  • Elon Musk’s daughter granted name change to cut ties with father and reflect new gender identity

    Elon Musk’s daughter granted name change to cut ties with father and reflect new gender identity

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Elon Musk’s daughter has legally changed her name to reflect her new gender identity and cut all ties with her father. The Tesla and Space X billionaire’s 18-year-old girl’s birth name …Read More »
  • Prince Charles to give blessing to Commonwealth countries wanting to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state

    Prince Charles to give blessing to Commonwealth countries wanting to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Prince Charles is to give his blessing to Commonwealth countries that wish to move away from the royal family. The Prince of Wales will meet with prime ministers and presidents at …Read More »
Previous Post: « Biden meets leaders of Finland, Sweden on NATO expansion
Next Post: Russian soldier asks for forgiveness in Ukraine war crimes trial »

Primary Sidebar

News

  • Landmark gun-safety bill heads to U.S. House after Senate passage

    Landmark gun-safety bill heads to U.S. House after Senate passage

  • Prosecutors seek 25-year prison sentence for Chauvin over breach of Floyd’s rights

    Prosecutors seek 25-year prison sentence for Chauvin over breach of Floyd’s rights

  • New York officials slam ‘shocking’ Supreme Court gun ruling

    New York officials slam ‘shocking’ Supreme Court gun ruling

RSS Partner Links

  • Chris Pratt Says That His Super Mario Voice Is “Unlike Anything You’ve Heard”
  • OMG, which super famous male musician’s jock strap is on sale for $37k!?
  • Fred Goldman Claims That O.J. Simpson Owes Him $96 Million
  • Seth Sikes Sings Fire Island's Praises
  • OMG, LISTEN TO THIS: Lil Nas X & NBA YoungBoy lash out in ‘Late To Da Party (F*CK BET) ‘
  • OMG, he’s naked: Brett Geddes aka “Terminte” goes full-frontal in ‘THE BOYS: Season 3’
  • OMG, comedian Michael Henry presents: “NO KINK AT PRIDE!?”

Most Recent

  • Factbox-Where abortion is still legal in the U.S. after the fall of Roe v. Wade

    Factbox-Where abortion is still legal in the U.S. after the fall of Roe v. Wade

  • Analysis-Trump’s justices decisive in long campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade

    Analysis-Trump’s justices decisive in long campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade

  • U.S. Supreme Court overturns abortion rights landmark

    U.S. Supreme Court overturns abortion rights landmark

  • Elon Musk’s daughter granted name change to cut ties with father and reflect new gender identity

    Elon Musk’s daughter granted name change to cut ties with father and reflect new gender identity

  • Prince Charles to give blessing to Commonwealth countries wanting to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state

    Prince Charles to give blessing to Commonwealth countries wanting to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state

  • Anne Hathaway ‘so influenced’ by Patricia Field

    Anne Hathaway ‘so influenced’ by Patricia Field

  • Prince Charles expresses ‘personal sorrow’ over impact of slavery

    Prince Charles expresses ‘personal sorrow’ over impact of slavery

  • Monkeypox State-by-State Case Count (CDC and State Health Orgs) & CDC Health Guidelines

    Monkeypox State-by-State Case Count (CDC and State Health Orgs) & CDC Health Guidelines

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy
[towleroadmr] [towleroadtn]

Footer

Copyright © 2022 · Log in