Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks during the California Democratic Convention in San Francisco, California, U.S. June 1, 2019. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has introduced legislation that blocks the use of Census data on citizenship for congressional redistricting.
The legislation would prohibit the use of any citizenship data that the Census provides to states for drawing new congressional maps.
Sen. Booker said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, “The Trump Administration has made every effort to alter the Census process and use it as a surgical tool to undercount and hurt certain communities for political gain. This administration has changed its story on the citizen question at least ten times in the last four months and made it clear that there is no end to the lengths it will go to erode our institutions. The President has now admitted that he intends to make citizenship information a part of the redistricting process, which experts warn will benefit one political party. This egregious and blatant attempt to tamper with our democratic process would completely overhaul the rules of who gets to participate in a representative democracy in America and it can’t go unchecked.”
Booker added, “To be clear, redistricting based on citizenship data will push communities of color — which are already dramatically undercounted — farther into the shadows.”
Trump has admitted that the purpose of the citizenship question is to allow Republicans to rig House elections for a decade by undercounting minority voters in congressional districts. Trump is trying to rig the House so that a blue wave election like 2018 won’t happen for another decade.
The point of Booker’s legislation is that much of what Trump has done, or is trying to do can be fixed with a Democratic Congress and president. The legislation won’t pass this year, but if Democrats take back the Senate and White House, they can end the threat of Republicans rigging the House.
Having legislation ready to go is the key to Democrats hitting the ground running if they send Trump and McConnell packing in 2020.
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