NCS’s State of the Union turned heated on Sunday (May 10) as conservative commentator Scott Jennings and Democratic political strategist Ashley Allison went forwards and backwards in a tense showdown.
The dialogue revolved across the GOP’s recent gerrymandering and redrawing of congressional district maps, in addition to final week’s Supreme Court ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act, the landmark statute that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.
Jennings celebrated the gerrymandering, noting that it now provides Republicans an opportunity to succeed in the midterm elections. “Just a few days ago, Republicans were in the doldrums about the midterms,” he stated. “Now, because of Virginia, because of the redraws after the Voting Rights Act case, you’ve got Republicans feeling resurgent.”
He added, “The map looks good, the money looks good, the candidates look good, so we actually have a real race here!”
Allison, who beforehand served as a senior staffer in the Biden-Harris 2020 marketing campaign, blasted Jennings and the Republican occasion. “You all are cheating, just accept it,” she stated, per RawStory.
As Jennings tried to interject, Allison minimize him off, saying, “Let me just finish. You’re cheating because you, politically, are not favorable right now, so this is the only way you would actually win the House, by drawing maps. These maps are hurting one group of voters, and that is Black voters.”
She added, “Black voters were losing power in Texas. The Voting Rights Act was gutted, and [in] less than a week, you all took power away from Black people in Tennessee, in South Carolina, in Louisiana.”
The debate intensified when Allison stated, “You literally are taking Memphis, that is a city with Black voters, and you split it in three, stretching three thousand miles.”
“Whose the current Democrat congressman, or is it a Black congressman?” Jennings requested.
“Black people are allowed to like people that don’t look like them,” Allison fired again.
“Exactly, and that is the point I wanted you to make,” Jennings retorted. “Just because you’re not going to have a Black congressman, why is it that a Republican can’t do just as well representing Black voters as a Democrat?”
The pair then began speaking over one another, earlier than host Jake Tapper instructed Jennings to let Allison end making her level.
“Black people don’t elect Black people based on race, they elect people that are aligned with their moral, their beliefs in justice,” Allison said.
Jennings replied, “Black voters are still fully franchised and [can] go vote for whoever they want. It just doesn’t have to be a Democrat.”
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