Humanities Homework Help

must repond to two students discussion with a comment Students response 1;Although Joe Biden won the presidential election, many of the leaders at the state level are still republican. “…Democrats had reason to believe they could flip partisan control in many of these legislative chambers. But, even though Biden won, there was no blue wave.” (Jacobson, 2020). This is likely due to the fact that we just had four years of a republican president. Donald Trump endorsed many republicans for offices. This allowed for many republicans to win at the state levels. I think in the next few years we will see more democrats winning at the state levels, most likely in time for the next election.

I think the redistricting that is coming up will favor the republicans, as they can draw the lines to their favor. Historically, republicans are more aggressive when it comes to things such as packing the court or gerrymandering. Gerrymanders are “districts clearly drawn with the intent of pressing partisan advantage at the expense of other considerations.” (Greenblatt, 2020). Another reason why I think it will favor them is due to the covid-19 pandemic last year delaying the census, which is used to decide districting information. Also, many immigrants were reluctant to put their information in the census for fear that they could be deported. This will make the lines and distribution uneven in many places

student response 2 Even though Biden won the presidency in 2020, state legislatures in that year were predominantly Republican. I think this anomaly occurred as a result of gerrymandering and the influence of the majority parties campaigning to maintain their state legislative majorities. As the article explains with the example of Pennsylvania, Biden was expected to win the state vote for presidency, however, Republicans controlled the state legislature by “nudging a few seats their way” (Jacobson, 2020). Similarly in Wisconsin, Biden won the popular vote in the state but districts were redrawn for votes to maintain the Republican majority in the state legislature. In North Carolina, Trump won the popular vote and Republicans maintained control of state legislatures through redistricting that was unfavorable to the Democratic party (Jacobson, 2020). I think the redistricting process provides the majority parties of state legislatures unfair advantages to remain in control. By redrawing districts that favor their party, they provide themselves better opportunities for reelection that maintains the control within that party. By manipulating voting districts, state legislatures also influence which political parties and what demographic groups will be better represented in the U.S. House. The gerrymandering process also lessens the voting power of constituents that identify with one party but are regrouped into districts that predominantly vote for another party, assigning them with a representative that does not necessarily represent their interests.