Obama warns of a ‘decade of unfair, partisan gerrymandering’ in call to look at down-ballot races

Former President Obama urged voters to pay attention to down-ballot races in the November election in a video for NowThis News released Thursday.

The former president highlighted the role state lawmakers elected in 2020 will play in redistricting, saying, “In this election, the state leaders we elect will help redraw electoral districts all across the country.”

Obama went on to highlight the maps redrawn following state-level GOP victories in 2010 and their effect on his priorities as president, such as gun and immigration reforms.

The maps drawn after 2020, he says, “will stand for 10 years … that could mean a decade of fairly drawn districts where folks have an equal voice in their government, or it could mean a decade of unfair, partisan gerrymandering.”

The stakes in 2020 are even higher than you thought — @BarackObama explains why this is a ‘last chance’ election with down-ballot races that will reshape America’s election maps for a decade in this NowThis exclusive pic.twitter.com/cVd0ncQiHe

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 24, 2020

“President Obama has said this is an all-hands-on-deck moment, and one of the main drivers is redistricting that will happen based on November’s results,” adviser Eric Schultz told CNN. “Now more than ever, we need to elect Democrats up and down the ballot. The presidential campaign generally gets most of the attention, but President Obama believes these other races are mission-critical.”

Democratic groups are spending millions on state legislative races in places including Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona.

While President Trump won all four of those states in 2016, polling has indicated a tight race or a lead for Democratic nominee Joe Biden in all of them. If a potential Trump loss affects down-ballot races as well, Democratic advocacy groups told the network those state houses could be within reach.

“Without having a seat at the table next year, we will likely see an unprecedented level of gerrymandering,” Forward Majority co-founder Vicky Hausman told CNN.