Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman surveys the 2022 midterm election landscape - "The Takeout"
CBSN
In the 2022 midterm elections, there will be far fewer competitive House districts due to gerrymandering and geographic polarization, says election forecaster and senior editor at the Cook Political Report Dave Wasserman.
"[Americans] want to live in places where the vast majority of their neighbors and friends are going to agree with their political and cultural values," Wasserman told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on this week's episode of "The Takeout" podcast. "When we've got deeply red and deeply blue neighborhoods, it makes it easier for the partisans who are in charge of these [redistricting] maps to slice and dice the electorate in ways that polarize districts. And the biggest victim in all of this is competition."
At least 19 states have passed new congressional maps so far, and Republicans will draw the districts for 187 U.S. House seats, compared to 75 seats under Democratic control. The remaining seats are controlled by independent or bipartisan commissions.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.