A Democratic lawmaker is lashing out over her state’s congressional redistricting.
Nevada Rep. Dina Titus tore into her state’s legislature over a redistricting process that she believes puts her and fellow Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford at risk of losing their seats in the 2022 midterms.
“I totally got fucked by the legislature on my district,” Titus told an AFL-CIO union hall Wednesday. “I’m sorry to say it like that, but I don’t know any other way to say it.” The remarks were first by the Nevada Current.
Titus, one of three Democrats in Nevada’s congressional delegation, argued that the Nevada state legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, should have created safe seats for her and Horsford, while making fellow Democratic Rep. Susie Lee’s seat a swing district.
“They could have created two safe seats for themselves and one swing. That would have been smart. Steven and mine and then a swing. No no, we have to have three that are very likely going down,” she complained.
President Joe Biden won Titus’ current district, Nevada’s First, by 25 points in 2020. However, in an effort to give Titus, Horsford and Lee chances to win, the state legislature created three seats that lean slightly Democratic. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei’s Second District is expected to remain safe for the GOP.
“Even though the three new Clark County districts would typically lean a bit Democratic, if Biden’s approval numbers remain negative (or get much lower), Republicans’ odds of winning them could increase,” elections analyst J. Miles Coleman told The Nevada Independent shortly after the maps were finalized.
The Democratic Party’s performance in Nevada is heavily reliant on support from the state’s Latino community, a group that has drifted towards the Republicans in recent elections. Donald Trump won 29% of the Latino vote in Nevada in 2016, a CNN exit poll found, but increased his total in the group to 35% in 2020.
Titus suggested that Latinos could file a lawsuit over the newly-drawn maps.
“The Hispanics were going to file a suit but they haven’t got the wherewithal to get that together even though in other states they have filed suits for similar kinds of (redistricting issues),” she added.
Titus is not the first member of Congress to express dissatisfaction with a newly-drawn district. Democratic North Carolina Rep. GK Butterfield urged Democrats to sue after the North Carolina legislature re-drew his First District.
“It’s racially gerrymandered. It will disadvantage African American communities all across the First Congressional District,” Butterfield said, while announcing his retirement.
Republicans have urged the Biden administration to sue Maryland over its notoriously gerrymandered congressional districts. A map passed by the state legislature over the veto of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan could give Democrats an 8-0 majority in Maryland’s House delegation.