The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) is launching a new ad campaign targeting Democrats on the issue of gerrymandering.
The ad, first obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller, highlights Democrat-controlled gerrymandering in blue states like Oregon, Illinois and Maryland, where new district lines are being drawn to grant Democrats an advantage ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Leaders of the Democratic Party have frequently criticized Republicans for gerrymandering, and the Biden administration has taken legal action against some red states like Texas for how they handle their elections and district boundaries.
“Democrats rail against gerrymandering unless they’re the ones doing it,” a narrator of the ad proclaims. “And they’re doing it all across the country … in order to gain power, Democrats do one thing and say another.”
The ad also features quotes from former President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder criticizing gerrymandering. Holder is the president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), a Democratic Party-aligned organization which campaigns and files lawsuits against Republican-drawn Congressional and legislative maps.
The NDRC has filed lawsuits in Republican-controlled states such as Ohio and North Carolina, but has legally defended gerrymandered maps in Oregon. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Larry Hogan Backers Go After Democrats For ‘Extreme’ Gerrymandering)
Similarly, the Department of Justice under Attorney General Merrick Garland sued the state of Texas in December over its newly-proposed Congressional map. Garland also sued Georgia over its new election law and filed a statement of interest in a Florida voting rights case, but has taken no meaningful action to curtail gerrymandering in blue states.
According to the Cook Political Report, there will likely be several more Biden-won Congressional districts in 2022 than there were in 2020 due to Democrat-controlled redistricting.