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Welcome to the Wednesday, Feb. 19, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- 2,557 major party candidates have filed for Congress in 2020
- Missouri Senate approves amendment that would change state redistricting process
- What’s the tea? results
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2,557 major party candidates have filed for Congress in 2020
With 38 filing deadlines remaining, 2,557 major party candidates have filed to run for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in 2020. That figure has grown by 210 in the past month.
- 360 candidates have filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run for U.S. Senate. There are 163 Democrats and 144 Republicans running. Fifty-three candidates are either independent or third party affiliated. In 2018, 527 candidates filed with the FEC to run for U.S. Senate, including 137 Democrats and 240 Republicans.
- 2,472 candidates have filed with the FEC to run for the U.S. House. There are 1,070 Democrats and 1,180 Republicans running. 222 are either independent or third party candidates. In 2018, 3,244 candidates filed with the FEC, including 1,566 Democrats and 1,155 Republicans.
- Since January 20, 187 major party candidates have filed for the U.S. House. Of those, 121 are Republicans and 66 are Democrats.
- 23 major party candidates have filed for the U.S. Senate in the same time period. Of those, 13 are Democrats and 10 are Republicans.
Four senators (three Republicans and one Democrat) are not running for re-election this year. Thirty-six representatives are not seeking re-election. Of those, 27 are Republican and nine are Democratic. In 2018, 55 members of Congress—18 Democrats and 37 Republicans—did not seek re-election.
Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House seats are up for election on November 3, 2020. Two of those Senate races (Arizona and Georgia) are special elections. Twelve are Democratic-held seats and 23 are Republican-held seats. In the House, Democrats currently hold a 232-197 majority with one independent member.
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Missouri Senate approves amendment that would change state redistricting process
The Missouri Senate approved Senate Joint Resolution 38 (SJR 38) that would change the state’s redistricting process. By a vote of 22-9, the Missouri Senate approved SJR 38, a measure that would amend Article III of the Missouri Constitution to change provisions of Missouri Amendment 1, which passed in 2018.
The amendment would enact the following changes:
- eliminate the nonpartisan state demographer and revert to a bipartisan commission appointed by the governor;
- alter the criteria used to draft district maps;
- change the threshold of lobbyist gifts from $5 to $0; and
- lower the contribution limit for state senate campaigns from $2,500 to $2,400.
The measure must receive a simple majority vote (82 votes) in the state House in order to be placed on the November ballot. The House vote has not yet been scheduled.
Missouri Amendment 1 (2018) was an initiated constitutional amendment approved with 62% of the vote. The amendment created a position called the non-partisan state demographer, who was tasked with drawing state legislative districts. Amendment 1 required the state demographer and redistricting commissions to consider specific criteria, including what the initiative calls partisan fairness and competitiveness, contiguousness, compactness, and the boundaries of political subdivisions.
SJR 38 would require that population size, adherence to voting rights laws, compactness, and boundaries of political subdivisions have a higher priority than partisan fairness and competitiveness in the criteria used for redistricting.
Amendment 1 also prohibited the Missouri Legislature from passing laws allowing for unlimited campaign contributions to candidates for the state legislature. Amendment 1 established campaign contribution limits for candidates and their committees. Contributions to state Senate candidates were limited to $2500 per election cycle, and a $2000 per cycle limit was created for state House candidates.
The group Clean Missouri sponsored Amendment 1. On Feb. 10, the committee reported receiving a $100,000 contribution from the Action Now Initiative after SJR 38 passed the state Senate. In 2018, Clean Missouri and an allied committee, Fight for Reform - Missouri, raised a total of $5.63 million, including $1.01 million from the Action Now Initiative and $1 million from the National Education Association. The Missourians First and Advance Missouri PACs, which registered to oppose Amendment 1, raised $343,201.
SJR 38 was introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives on Feb. 11.
If SJR 38 is passed, Missouri would become the sixth state to use a bipartisan politician redistricting commission. Ballotpedia is currently tracking eight other redistricting ballot measures in 2020.
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What’s the tea? results
The results are in from last week’s What’s the tea? question! We asked our readers to predict how many notable Democratic presidential candidates will still be running the day after Super Tuesday, March 4. There are currently eight elected officials and notable public figures running for the nomination. The options were:
The number with the highest entries (30% of the votes) was 4 candidates. The next-highest (25%) was 5.
Thanks for casting your vote! With Super Tuesday less than two weeks away, I’m looking forward to watching the election results come in.
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The Lucy Burns Institute, publisher of Ballotpedia, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the extent of the law. Donations to the Lucy Burns Institute or Ballotpedia do not support any candidates or campaigns.
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