Kevin Kiley: “I rise again today to advocate for an end to the redistricting war that has been cascading across the country. I have…”

“I rise again today to advocate for an end to the redistricting war that has been cascading across the country. I have introduced legislation that would say we should not have mid-decade redistricting. It should not be done in any State. I opposed what happened in Texas to re-gerrymander that State in the middle of the decade, and I opposed what happened in California. I opposed the efforts that are afoot as well in other States, and I applaud the decision by the Indiana State Senate to not move forward with a mid-decade gerrymander in a fairly overwhelming vote yesterday. The fact is that gerrymandering is an affront to representative government and democracy. What we are seeing right now runs against the desires of Members of this body on both sides of the aisle and certainly runs contrary to what is in the interest of the country. I have called upon the leadership in the House for months to bring this bill to the floor or to otherwise reach an armistice in this redistricting war. I believe it was a failure of leadership, frankly, on both sides, to allow this to happen. As I warned months ago, the whole thing is basically turning out to be a wash. If you look at the various election forecasters, they say, yes, you are probably not going to see either side really gain much. All of this effort, all of this money, all of this political capital spent redrawing maps, upending the districts of dozens of our Members on both sides of the aisle, and to what end?”