DDHQ Morning News Spotlight: Missouri General Assembly Passes Redistricting Map

Morning Headlines

• The Missouri Senate has passed a congressional redistricting map. It was the last state legislature in the country to pass a redistricting plan of any kind. The Missouri House passed the plan earlier in the week and the Senate used a rule that hadn’t been used since 1979 to fast track the plan to the Senate floor before that chamber adjourned their session for the year a day early. Republicans control both houses of the General Assembly and the Governor’s office but were unable to agree on a plan. Conservatives wanted a map that would gain the party a seat in the U.S. House, but the map passed will likely maintain the current 6-2 Republican advantage.
• Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee submitted her letter of resignation to Governor Ron DeSantis yesterday. Her last day will be Monday, May 16, one month before the candidate qualifying period begins for the state’s August 23 primary. The only reason given in the letter was that she would “pursue other opportunities”. It is widely expected that she will run for the newly drawn Tampa Bay-area 15th Congressional District.
• Former Vice President Mike Pence will attend a get-out-the-vote rally for Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on the eve of the state’s primary election. This marks another break of Pence from former President Trump, who has endorsed Kemp’s primary challenger, former U.S. Senator David Perdue. Pence calls Governor Kemp “one of the most successful conservative governors in America”. Trump has blamed Kemp for not doing enough to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
• The January 6 Select House Committee has issued subpoenas for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy along with Reps. Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, Scott Perry, and Jim Jordan. The Committee is interested in their communications with former President Trump and his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on January 6. All five Congressional members have so far refused to cooperate with the investigation, and have not said yet if they would comply with the subpoenas. The Committee has already held multiple Trump allies in contempt for not complying with their subpoenas, but none have been sitting members of Congress.
• The Senate has confirmed Jerome Powell for a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve by a vote of 80-19. The show of bipartisan support comes during a time of record inflation which the Fed under Powell has tried to combat by raising interest rates. Powell said that continuing to combat inflation will be his top priority, though he said it would not be painless and he cannot guarantee a “soft landing” in the crisis.
• The Ohio Redistricting Commission is once again answering to the state’s Supreme Court for why they should not be held in contempt. The Court had ordered the Commission to pass a new state legislative redistricting plan by May 6, but instead, the Commission resubmitted a plan that had already been ruled unconstitutional. The Republican members of the Commission argued they should not be held in contempt because the plan they submitted is in line with a federal court’s ruling that says if no plan is passed by May 28, the maps that the courts resubmitted would be the ones used. Those maps were the third of four redistricting plans rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court.

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