{"id":1912870,"date":"2023-04-11T02:25:48","date_gmt":"2023-04-11T06:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it\/"},"modified":"2023-04-11T02:27:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T06:27:30","slug":"19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it\/","title":{"rendered":"19 Statehouses Have Bigger Republican Majorities Than Florida. This Group Is Making Sure They Act Like It."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F19-statehouses-have-bigger-republican-majorities-than-florida-this-group-is-making-sure-they-act-like-it%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1912870&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><em>Republicans hold governorships and legislative majorities in 22 states, compared to 17 for Democrats and 11 states in which government is divided. Yet, GOP-run states often do not implement policies aligned with their party as Democrat-led states often do. The following is the first in a four-part series on Republican-dominated state legislatures and how they govern.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In January, some members of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/freedom-caucus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">House Freedom Caucus<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/breaking-19-republicans-block-kevin-mccarthys-bid-for-house-speaker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">refused<\/a> to vote for <a href=\"https:\/\/editorial.bentkey.internal\/news\/kevin-mccarthy-defends-releasing-january-6-tapes-torches-cnn-reporter-to-their-face-daily-wire-news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kevin McCarthy<\/a> as House speaker unless he promised concessions. They won. Now, the staunchly conservative group is expanding into an area where they could make a far larger difference: Red states where laws can be passed without support from Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>The State Freedom Caucus Network has rapidly taken root in 11 states, promising to make sure that states where Republicans have a mandate legislate like it. While their House counterparts have been criticized as obstructionist \u2014 failing to understand the need for compromise in a closely matched body \u2014 that criticism doesn\u2019t apply in deep-red states, where the question becomes why <i>are<\/i> Republicans compromising with Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has attracted national attention with bold policies, but Florida is not a historically red state. DeSantis won his first election by less than one percent. As of 2021, 64% of statehouse seats in Florida were held by Republicans \u2014 ranking it 20th in terms of Republican control, barely above average.<\/p>\n<p>States like Wyoming, the Dakotas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Utah dwarfed Florida in terms of actual Republican control, with 90% of seats in Wyoming occupied by Republicans. Even Ohio had more Republican control than Florida, according to 2021 data from the National Council of State Legislatures.<\/p>\n<p>For years, there has been little national media coverage of state politics, so residents of red states might hear little about what\u2019s going on in their capitals, good or bad.<\/p>\n<p>But with Florida in the headlines on a weekly basis for making moves \u2014 in recent weeks Florida passed constitutional carry, a six-week abortion ban, and school choice \u2014 residents of the 19 states that are redder than Florida are increasingly wondering why they\u2019re not hearing about similarly bold moves in their state.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s triggering what might be called a Ron Revolution, with lawmakers in other states seeking to follow the blueprint created by DeSantis. The Florida governor welcomes that, saying \u201cI want them to eclipse me. We\u2019re setting a great standard in Florida, have everyone up their game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The State Freedom Caucus Network in some ways has DeSantis in its DNA. As a congressman from 2013-2018, DeSantis was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus. The Network is led by Andrew Roth, a former Club for Growth executive, alongside Justin Ouimette, the House group\u2019s former executive director.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the House Freedom Caucus fought with the speaker in January, we\u2019re trying to bring that business model down to the states. It makes sense there. What the State Freedom Caucus Network does is take these part-time lawmakers and give them staff and a full year-round operation,\u201d Roth told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Daily Wire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image\"><\/div>\n<p>In much the same way that conservatives long ignored school boards, assuming they didn\u2019t matter and that the ones where they live were probably in good hands \u2013 before coronavirus school shutdowns showed them that none of that was true \u2013 strategists say a similar awakening is afoot when it comes to state-level politics.<\/p>\n<p>The importance of states is two-fold: First, many have Republican majorities or supermajorities allowing them to actually implement policies, instead of just arguing about them in the abstract, as is more likely to happen in Washington. Second, states are more powerful than many give them credit for, having authority under the Constitution to oversee every power not specifically granted to the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of the big issues occurring right now are at the state level. School choice, ESG, CRT, porn in our schools, election integrity, abortion \u2013 all of those are state issues,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n<p>Roth said his group has already notched numerous wins, with the Idaho Freedom Caucus killing a student-loan forgiveness program pushed by Republican Gov. Brad Little, and the Arizona Freedom Caucus helping torpedo the Democrat governor\u2019s nominee for state health director over her stance on closing schools. Mississippi\u2019s chapter pressured the speaker to cancel a fundraiser supporting a pro-abortion former Democrat, he said.<\/p>\n<p>In Idaho, a school board \u201cchose to open up bathrooms to boys and girls, and the state education superintendent just shrugged her shoulders.\u201d But after Attorney General Raul Labrador, a former congressman who was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, weighed in, the school board paused their decision, he said.<\/p>\n<p>One recent night, state lawmakers gathered in a Washington, D.C. townhouse to prepare for the launch of the network\u2019s newest chapter in Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to stand our ground and let people know we\u2019re standing our ground,\u201d Beryl Amedee, a second-term Louisiana legislator, told The Daily Wire. \u201cI believe that when the people in Louisiana see that there are people in office who do represent their actual views, I think that will affect future elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The network\u2019s staff on the ground there will be run by Connie Hair, the former chief of staff for Rep. Louie Gohmert, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who left Congress to pursue a Texas state office.<\/p>\n<p>Hair expects to get much more done in Louisiana than she could in Washington. \u201cWe can\u2019t solve this at the federal level. We need people doing it at the state level,\u201d she told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>But there is also a problem: Few residents pay attention to state-level politics, and therefore, no one holds Republican lawmakers accountable when they fail to reflect the views of their constituents. Most residents couldn\u2019t even name their state rep \u2013 they simply assume that if they have the right party signifier behind their name, they\u2019re worthy of re-election.<\/p>\n<p>Alan Seabaugh, a Louisiana legislator since 2010, said he doesn\u2019t want to attack his fellow Republicans, he simply wants Louisiana voters to know how they\u2019re behaving. After one vote, \u201cI printed the list of votes and highlighted the names of the Republicans who voted to raise taxes and put it on Facebook, and you would have thought I set off a bomb. They were calling me, \u2018why would you do that to me?\u2019 I thought, \u2018why would you do that to <i>me<\/i>?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>One reason Republican states fail to successfully execute conservative policy is that being a state lawmaker is often a part-time position with little in the way of staffing. That\u2019s where the Freedom Caucus will come in, providing outside experts to perform services like poring through lengthy bills to evaluate which ones are good and which ones may have problematic clauses tucked in.<\/p>\n<p>It can also make sure that bills are drafted in a detailed manner that makes sure they won\u2019t be easily circumvented, as has happened with some efforts to ban CRT in schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they submit a bill to be drafted, the conservatives don\u2019t draft it very well so it doesn\u2019t stand up very well. The lawyers have an advantage, but the guy who owns a gas station doesn\u2019t know the finer points of the law,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n<p>Ensuring that Republicans have counterpoints to states like California \u2014 which is not only dominated by Democrats in the legislature, but also routinely implements far-Left policy \u2014 could offer a pressure relief valve from the tensions of modern U.S. politics, allowing people to choose to move to places that will predictably be governed in a way that aligns with their values.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea of a national divorce is dumb, but we should have bold red states where people can move to,\u201d Thomas Bradbury, director of advocacy and policy at the American Conservative Union, told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>And in an era where few are still persuadable by political rhetoric, the way a party governs when they have control of a state is important because it\u2019s a chance for voters to see whether those policies work with their own eyes.<\/p>\n<p>Residents in purple states can look at the real-world outcomes in states that are governed with bold conservative visions versus bold liberal visions, and see which one worked out better. If states are the laboratories of democracy, that amounts to evaluating the outcome of the experiment.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s an experiment that worked out well for conservatives in places like Florida\u2019s Miami-Dade County, a Democrat stronghold that voted for DeSantis last year. Prior to his election, they might have believed ads that portrayed DeSantis in overblown terms. But after four years of enacting policies, they could judge him on outcomes, not rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you lead boldly, you can convince people that the policies have made their lives better,\u201d Bradbury said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republicans hold governorships and legislative majorities in 22 states, compared to 17 for Democrats and 11 states in which government is divided. Yet, GOP-run states often do not implement policies aligned with their party as Democrat-led states often do. The following is the first in a four-part series on Republican-dominated state legislatures and how they<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":1912871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[8356,5113,7454,15875,3911,24075],"class_list":["post-1912870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-bigger","tag-florida","tag-it","tag-majorities","tag-republican","tag-statehouses"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1912870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1912871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1912870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1912870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1912870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}