On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX) said that Democrats are “a very big tent, we have a lot of ideas, and we have people who disagree on certain things. But what we do care about is healthcare for everyone, jobs for everyone. We care about big values. We disagree sometimes on the method of how to go about getting there. But that’s part of what robust primaries are about.” And it’ll be interesting to see how DSA candidates do in Florida’s primaries.
Co-host Sara Sidner asked, “There is a serious impact that you have felt the sting of, and that is the Republican-led redistricting efforts that have scrambled congressional maps and created sort of new political fights among Democrats. What worries you the most about Democrats’ chances of gaining power? Is it this redistricting, or there is also this internal battle between establishment candidates and progressive that’s come up?”
Johnson answered, “Sure. Well, the redistricting situation has been wicked, for sure. Obviously, they came into Texas first, redistricted a bunch of seats. It’s been a brouhaha battle throughout the country. We’re going to see it play out today in Florida with what happens with some of the seats down there, especially with Debbie’s seat and some others. It’s been a tool because the Republicans are very scared. But it’s also very concerning about his attack on the right to vote and their incessant push of the SAVE Act, his relentless assaults on mail-in ballots. It’s just an overall picture of their concern about their electoral outcomes in November, because the American people are very frustrated with what the Trump administration has been doing and how they’ve been doing their job. And so they feel like they have this need to sort of cheat the vote in a way, rig the maps, try to make it really hard for people to vote, and the like.”
Johnson continued, “And as far as the momentum within the Democratic Party, we’re a very big tent, we have a lot of ideas, and we have people who disagree on certain things. But what we do care about is healthcare for everyone, jobs for everyone. We care about big values. We disagree sometimes on the method of how to go about getting there. But that’s part of what robust primaries are about. And we’re going to see what happens today in Florida. There’s going to be a challenge in Rep. Jared Moskowitz’s (D-FL) seat in that regard. And it’s going to be interesting to see, because the DSA has done well in typically Democratic states. But this is a time where we’re going to see how they do in a strong Republican state.”
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