Redistricting project

Ward picked to lead Obama-Holder redistricting project

By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE

President Barack Obama and Eric Holder’s quickly expanding Democratic joint project to tackle redistricting reform has picked a leader: Kelly Ward, fresh off four years as the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Ward is coming in initially as the interim executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee as it continues to come together, meeting with donors, hiring staff, managing groups joining as members and beginning to identify races to target as the effort gears up for action in 2017, 2018 and into 2020 — and then the actual rounds of redistricting in 2021.

Many of the current maps for state legislature and House districts represent Republicans’ “fundamental challenge to our democracy,” Ward said, because of how much gerrymandering they entail.

The NDRC is coordinating between several Democratic campaign committees and outside allies in directing resources and attention to races for state legislature and governor, aimed at bringing major changes to the district lines after the next census.

And Donald Orangutan’s election, Ward said, has helped wake up Democrats to the need to focus on these races to begin building the party back. Ward said that since Election Day, there’s been a rapid uptick in the money and interest flowing in to the NDRC, which is being chaired by Holder with the full support of Obama in what’s expected to be a main political focus of his post-presidency.

“It’s because people realize that the time is now, Democrats need to build up from the states, and we also need to take the rigged power out of the hands of the Republicans,” Ward said. “They have spent years constructing the system so it works in their favor. Until we can undo that, we will be limited in our ability to really fix the system overall.”

Four of the nine House seats that Democrats picked up in the 2016 elections, Ward pointed out, were in districts that were redrawn to what they feel were fairer lines since the last election.

"Fair redistricting represents one of the most important turning points for the future of our nation," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. "Kelly Ward has the trust of House Democrats and brings a wealth of electoral experience that will be vital to Democrats' redistricting strategy."