Democratic West Virginia senator calls the Inflation Reduction Act, hailed as ābiggest step on climate crisisā, a āradical agendaā
Democratic West Virginia senator calls the Inflation Reduction Act, hailed as ābiggest step on climate crisisā, a āradical agendaā
You canāt gerrymander a statewide race like senator or governor, because everyone in the state gets to vote, thereās no districts to draw.
At a national level (as in its three house reps) itās so red that no matter how you draw it theyāre all going to be red.
At the state level, they have 100 house districts and 34 for the senate drawn by the Republican legislature that are certainly gerrymandered (couldnāt find much about the specifics though except this.)
See my comment below, you can absolutely gerrymander the state level politicians that make the laws for the statewide elections.
I agree the gerrymandering of state districts can definitely influence the outcome of statewide races, but they cannot directly gerrymander the senate race because the only ādistrictā is the state itself which cannot be redrawn.
So looking at the original question, are they gerrymandering the senate seat? No, they canāt. Are they unfairly influencing outcomes of the race through other means? Probably. Will it make a difference in terms of WV voting for a dem thatās not Manchin (ie is it ārealā)? Probably no because the only thing keeping a (more or less) Dem senator in a state that went 70% for Trump is incumbency and his special relationship to the coal industry.
Iām not sure why youāre getting downvoted, itās a fair answer even though I think gerrymandering is definitely being set up across the country and I donāt agree with that part.
Haha itās ok. Iām not saying that gerrymandering isnāt a problem or that itās not happening literally all the time as much as possible.
All I mean is that you canāt gerrymander a federal senate seat. You can gerrymander the state legislature districts that control many of the aspects of voting for that statewide seat, but you cannot redraw (ie gerrymander) Joe Manchinās senate seat without some minor civil wars with WVās neighbor states.
I agree with that part, but whatās the difference if itās not direct? Regardless, it sounds like itās a pretty red state anyway.
To me itās just about the definition of the word. It would be incorrect to say, āThe WV legislature gerrymandered Joe Manchinās senate seat.ā Because gerrymandering means redrawing districts. You can totally say āThe gerrymandered WV legislature passed laws that make it harder for Joe Manchin to be elected.ā While gerrymandering affects the outcome, what theyāre doing to Joe Manchinās district is not gerrymandering.
Lol, youāre a writer and/or journalist, yes? Iām not and not that worried about getting it just right, the results are the same.
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@PeleSpirit Ha, recovering grad student. No worries, shitty voter suppression is shitty voter suppression at the end of the day.
(tagging you because for whatever reason my comment wasnāt appearing as a direct reply, weird!)
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