On this episode of The Siren Podcast, Jo is joined by Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, for a wide-ranging conversation on the coordinated Republican attack on voting rights, unions, and what Democrats are doing to fight back.
The Florida Supreme Court just ruled yesterday that Ron DeSantis’ and Florida Republicans’ illegal gerrymandered map, that removes up to 4 Democratic seats, was legal and could proceed. This comes as the Virginia Supreme Court recently ruled that the Democrats’ attempt at redistricting in response to Texas’ gerrymandering could not proceed. There seems to be different rules for the two major parties in America, especially since Ron DeSantis himself picked the majority of the Florida Supreme Court deciding this case.
After the Supreme Court gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Republican-led legislatures moved within hours to gerrymander districts across the South. Jo and Rep. Horsford discuss this lightning-fast reaction by southern states, including in Alabama, a state where Black residents make up over a third of the population. Voters are being carved out of representation they fought decades to win. In addition, the duo speaks about what this might mean for Horsford’s home state of Nevada, where Horsford says we must make the 2026 midterm elections “too big to rig.”
Then there’s the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which came to a vote this week in an historic victory for unions across the nation. The bill would stop corporations from using endless negotiation delays to block workers from ever signing a union contract. Rep. Horsford voted yes on the bill along with every every other Democrat. Comparatively, 192 Republicans voted no. As Rep. Horsford says, that tells you everything you need to know about whose side they’re on.
On the topic of Social Security and Medicare, Rep. Horsford represents a district where more than half of his constituents rely on Social Security as their only source of retirement income. An average check comes in at around $1,000 a month for rent, co-pays, groceries, and now skyrocketing gas prices. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Speaker Mike Johnson was recently caught on tape calling cuts to these programs in the form of “adjustments” and “fixes,” as the country still reels from Elon Musk’s disastrous cuts to Social Security from DOGE.
Jo and Rep. Horsford discuss all of this and more, right here on The Siren Network.
