Stated Podcast: Eric Holder, 82nd Attorney General of the United States
Season 2, Episode 3 of Stated, a podcast by the DLCC
Jessica talks about redistricting, voting rights, and why state elections matter with Eric Holder, the 82nd Attorney General of the United States. Attorney General Holder served under President Obama from 2009 until 2015 and currently serves as the Chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a centralized hub for fighting against Republican gerrymandering.
This interview was first published on May 15, 2019 and has been edited for length and clarity. Subscribe to Stated on your favorite podcast app.
Jessica and Attorney General Holder discuss his work with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and how to prevent massive Republican gerrymanders like we saw after the last census in 2010.
Attorney General Eric Holder: In the last decade, Democrats have gotten more votes than Republicans over the course in any number of elections, but have been unable to get the appropriate representation at the Congressional level or the state legislature… There’s still an awful lot of work to do and I think we can’t underestimate what the Republicans are prepared to try to maintain that power that I would say they illegitimately got.
They also discuss recent Republican efforts to pass legislation in the states that makes it harder to vote.
All of these things give me great concern. But what I think voters have to do about it is make their voices heard. I think people underestimate the ability that they have as ordinary citizens. When we are united, when we make ourselves known, when we express ourselves as a group we are a very powerful force.
People need to think about how powerful that was the day after the Trump inauguration, when women marched and said, in essence, “We are still here.” And what happened when Republicans decided they were going to do away with the Affordable Care Act… It’s a question of making sure that we know what it it is [Republicans] are doing, be prepared to use all the power we have — whether it is filing law suits or demonstrating –– and make this system fair and consistent with our founding ideals.
Jessica also asks Attorney General Holder about his recent announcement that he is not going to run for president in 2020, and his call for more national energy and attention on state races.
Democrats get all excited about the presidential election, and I understand that, and we should… Democrats have to win the 2020 presidential election. That is a given. But, we have to focus on these state races, these local races just as well.
If you care about having reproductive rights protected, if you care about having sane gun laws, if you want Medicaid expanded, if you want voting rights protected, if you care about climate– these are all the kinds of things that can be determined in state legislatures.
On a day-to-day basis, people are probably more impacted by what happens in state legislatures than they are in Congress, although, if you care about Congress, those lines are drawn in state legislatures. So if you care about having a not-gerrymandered Congress, you need to make sure that you have a not-gerrymandered state legislature.
If we are successful in electing a Democratic president in 2020, we don’t want to hobble that president with a gerrymandered Congress in the same way that Barack Obama was.
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