UPDATE: Heather Cox Richardson reports “Representative Bill Johnson (R-OH) today (1/2/24) submitted his resignation, effective January 21, to become the president of Youngstown State University. This shaves the Republican majority in the House of Representatives even thinner. With the recent expulsion of George Santos (R-NY) and resignation of Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the Republicans will control just 219 seats, permitting them a margin of only two seats to pass legislation when the House returns on January 9. “
Currently the Republicans have a slim majority in the House. (221 Republicans to 212 Democrats, allowing for a 5 vote swing). All 435 seats will be up for re-election for the 119th congress taking office on January 1, 2025. (Note that the new House will be the one certifying the Presidential election on Jan 6, 2025. Scroll to the bottom for actions!)
However, three congressmen are leaving early, necessitating special elections. Brian Higgins (NY-26) holds a safe Democratic seat; he is leaving in February of 2023. Kevin McCarthy (CA-20) has resigned his safe Republican seat as of 12/31/23. However, the expulsion of George Santos (NY-3) in a Biden District (Indivisible calls them the Unrepresentatives) has triggered a special election February 13, 2024 and an opportunity to flip a seat.
Why is this important? Hakeem Jefferies, the Democratic Minority leader, has led his caucus to vote in a united bloc, with all Democrats present and accounted for. The Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has no such luxury as his radicalized caucus is uninterested in compromises necessary to govern. This has led him to hold an impeachment “show trial” in order to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government, which notably did not include funding for Ukraine or Israel. However, the CR will run out in two parts, Jan 19 and Feb 2. House Representatives won’t even return to work until January 8, and unfortunately Republicans have absolutely no incentive to make government work. So get ready for more GOP bad faith tactics in the House.
Redistricting and Voting in New York
Having utterly failed in 2022 to allow Democrats to keep the House, there has been some promising reform activity in New York. Redistricting has been winding through the courts, and new maps are expected in time for 2024. The big question is how they will turn out. Democrats have the choice of making all the districts a little more favorable, or a few certain wins. Will New York Democrats be strong to protect Democracy nationwide? We can’t leave it to them; we will have to be active there.
New York has long been criticized for bad voting laws. With an actual state Democratic trifecta, reform laws have been passed. Of course Republicans are challenging them. Here’s what the GOP finds offensive:
The laws will:
- Permit voters to vote by mail during the early voting period (also called the Early Mail Voter Act),
- Implement same-day voter registration on the first day of early voting,
- Require schools to adopt policies to educate prospective voters before they turn 18,
- Mandate that local correctional facilities share voting information to people upon release,
- Crackdown on faithless electors by requiring presidential electors to vote for the candidates nominated by their party,
- Amend curing standards so that voters do not have to fix their ballots if the envelopes are sealed with tape, paste or any other binding agent and have no indication of tampering,
- Prohibit forum shopping by limiting the legal venues in which election law challenges can be brought,
- Require state boards of election to develop and provide a training curriculum for poll workers ,
- Establish a 48-hour deadline to change early voting polling locations unless there is a disaster or state of emergency and
- Schedule the presidential primary for April 2, 2024.
What you can do: We need to watch our New York neighbors closely and pitch in wherever we can. We need the House Majority in 2024, and the path lies through New York.