Democrats Need to Win State Elections to Stop Republicans From Rewriting the Constitution

Republicans are laying the groundwork to completely remake the U.S. Constitution through state legislatures, and there’s a good chance they could succeed.

That makes it imperative for Democrats to focus their energies on strengthening the party’s representation at the state level to stop this attack on our democracy.

According to recent reporting by Insider, GOP party leaders are making arrangements to amend the Constitution via Article V. In order to build a forever-conservative nation, Republican leaders want state legislators to start thinking long-term about what it takes to pass a constitutional amendment—and many GOP lawmakers from across the country met last month in Denver to discuss launching a constitutional convention.

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This plan, spearheaded by the group Convention of States Action (COS), has received millions from the Donors Capital Fund, as well as from numerous other high-profile Republican donors. COS is led by Mark Meckler, the interim president of the conservative-friendly social media site Parler, and Eric O’Keefe—a longtime right-wing political operative. COS also has the support of high-profile conservatives and Republicans such as Sean Hannity, Ben Shapiro, Mark Meadows, and Ben Carson. It’s even endorsed by prominent GOP elected officials, including Govs. Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, as well as Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.

Article V lays out two ways to add amendments to the Constitution.

The first is through the federal government, which requires two-thirds of Congress to pass a joint resolution. By design, this rarely happens (we’re only at 25 amendments, 235 years after the Constitution was ratified). And in today’s highly polarized Senate, where Democrats hold the slimmest of majorities, a new amendment any time soon is all but unthinkable.

But the second option, a convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures in the nation, is a path Republicans are very close to making possible.

Republicans already control 30 state legislatures—they’d only need three more to be able to call a constitutional convention. This means the upcoming November elections—especially at the state level—may be the deciding factor on whether the GOP has the power to radically remake the Constitution.

And lest there be any doubt as to the motivation behind a state-driven constitutional convention, COS has stated that limiting the federal government's power is its main goal in a constitution amendment proposal.

Melissa Murray, a NYU Law professor and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, expressed serious concern over this idea. “With amendments that only limit the power of the federal government, there’s actually quite a lot Republicans could do,” said Murray. “Taking away power from the federal government could mean curbing some of the powers of the federal government to enforce the 14th Amendment, it could also mean expanding protections of the 2nd Amendment.” This plan has been in the works for years, according to Murray.

With Republicans mounting egregious attacks in state legislatures on the right to vote and abortion access—as well as expanding partisan gerrymandering—it should not come as a surprise that a constitutional convention is now a part of the GOP playbook.

“When we talk about these issues in silos, we fail to realize this is all joined together,” said Melissa Murray. “They (Republicans) are connecting everything under the same organizing principle: to consolidate Republican power in state legislatures. It’s why we have gerrymandering and even why we have voter suppression laws.”

This crisis has been over 10 years in the making. During the Obama administration, Democrats were singularly focused on advancing federal legislation, like the Affordable Care Act. Democrats assumed this would translate to similar victories in state legislatures. Ultimately, this strategy came with a cost, a major one: Democrats lost 13 governorships and 816 state legislative seats. Moreover, they didn't explain to their base of young, diverse, minority voters that the issues that played into local state elections were equally important as the election of the first Black president.

Republicans during this time launched effective organizing groups, such as the Tea Party, which vehemently advocated for a version of “states’ rights” that was in conflict with the American system of federalism—the idea that power should be shared between the federal government and the states. The GOP made sure its supporters understood that there was political power outside of Washington—and that it existed in state and local government.

In the middle of Obama’s first term, Republicans in 2010 were able to win control of the once-in-a-decade electoral map drawing process that defines competitive elections at the state level. This made the district maps easier for them to run candidates in races where it was nearly impossible for them to lose.

Democrats now have to change their strategy. Instead of simply telling voters to give them control of Congress and the Senate, Democrats must emphasize to voters that Republicans still control most state legislatures, and if they remain in power, they can drastically change the Constitution. Furthermore, Democrats running for the state house must drive home the oft-forgotten political maxim that “all politics is local.” The people in state houses and city halls often have a lot more to do with the policies that affect your day-to-day life and the health of your community than whoever’s in charge in Washington.

Amanda Litman, a senior political strategist and co-founder of Run for Something—an organization that recruits and supports young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office—has been working to get more progressives elected in state legislatures. “Republicans have a longstanding infrastructure even in blue states that give their candidates a leg up. They have been investing in the local races for much longer.”

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When asked what Democrats can do to fight back against the threat of a constitutional convention, Litman replied, "Democrats should take the threat seriously. Republicans always tell us what they want to do. We should believe them and think broadly and in the long term of where we should be working to stop this from happening.”

There should be no doubt that Republicans are launching an all-out attack on American institutions, whether it’s the conservative Supreme Court majority removing Americans’ constitutional right to an abortion or state legislatures passing hundreds of measures to limit voting rights. Democrats cannot afford to waste time. This November, they need to invest heavily in every single state legislature race. Every American needs to understand the GOP’s constitutional plans threaten our way of life.

The Constitution has never been a perfect document. In its origin, it permitted the gross inhumanity of slavery and fell short in granting women and all ethnic minorities the right to participate in the political process. But the Founding Fathers, flawed though they were, had the wisdom to create parameters that would allow the Constitution to change with the times.

If Republicans are permitted to run wild with Article V of the Constitution, decades of progress to make our country more fair, equitable, and just could be undone.