I just found out about the way Allred responded to the anti-transgender ads. I’m pissed about it. I will still vote for him but 
Must we have this argument again? Gerrymandering absolutely effects statewide races in multiple ways.
- Depriving people of the ability to affect their local political representatives makes them far less likely to vote. Why bother when you’ve been disenfranchised on every level except US senator and US president and VP?
- It also robs the minority party of getting their people the experience and exposure necessary to compete on a statewide level. This hurts them in statewide races
- All those local officials gerrymandered into office have real effects on other voting rights. Like where polling locations are placed, how many get placed where, whether the county will allow voting in any precinct or only a person’s home precinct.
- In Texas, in particular, extraordinarily awful voting restrictions were passed into law and signed in to law largely because gerrymandering gives the GOP control over both houses of the state legislature.
- The local officials are also in charge of maintaining the voter rolls. Which means GOP dominated areas kick people off more regularly, without giving them a chance to correct things, and choose to “clean out” the registrations of POC.
Gerrymandering does not directly affect a statewide race. But all these indirect effects, and the many more I just don’t have the patience to type up, do have a strong effect on statewide races as well as US President and VP.
