Just a few days ago, I signed the NDRC's Fair Districts pledge -- and I want to tell you why you should sign All On The Line's accompanying Citizen Commitment.
Some issues are so clear they don't need more than a few words to describe them. That's why we had a phrase in my gubernatorial campaign in Michigan last year: "Fix the damn roads." Gerrymandering is the same way. It's wrong. No one supports it except special interests and politicians who want to guarantee re-election. And it's time we put an end to it.
So today, let's tell elected officials and other candidates running for office: It's time to end the damn map manipulation.
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Here in Michigan, we lived through a decade of manipulated maps -- ones that the GOP pushed through in 2011 when I was in the state Senate. And if Republicans had their way last fall, they would have gerrymandered all over again in 2021 for another decade.
But they didn't. The NDRC, All On The Line's affiliate, invested here. We won the governor's race. Michiganders overwhelmingly supported the creation of an independent redistricting commission. Now, we're one of the first states in the country to take redistricting out of politicians' hands and have an independent, non-partisan group draw fair districts.
With the help of All On The Line, that kind of change can happen everywhere. Manipulated, partisan districts are an insult to anyone who thinks their vote should count. They're why people start to believe their voices don't really matter. And they're how we end up with politicians pushing extreme policies instead of actually listening to their constituents.
Manipulated maps are at the core of so much that's wrong with our democracy. With All On The Line leading the way, we're going to do everything we can to fix it.
Sign All On The Line's Citizen Commitment today to stand against gerrymandering:
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Thank you,
Governor Gretchen Whitmer
