Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host. We’re watching hurricane maps and waiting for results in the Rhode Island primaries tonight.
Unless you’re a serious political junkie, you’ve probably never heard of Faith Winter.
But the 38-year-old candidate for the Colorado State Senate is running for a seat that has attracted intense focus — and spending — from both parties. That’s because if she wins, and other seats hold, control of the state legislature flips to the Democrats.
Besides Colorado, there are a half-dozen states where Democrats are a few seats away from winning control of the state senate:
• One seat away in New York, Maine and Minnesota.
• Two seats away in Wisconsin.
• Three away in Arizona and New Hampshire.
“For state legislatures, it’s the number one race in the country,” Ms. Winter told me in a phone interview this week. “In Colorado, in order to flip the Senate, it’s just my seat that we have win.”
“So, no pressure,” she added, with a laugh.
There has been lots of talk about the “blue wave” that could break over Congress, turning over control of the House to Democrats. But in some states, that wave could end up looking more like a flood.
While these races don’t have the flash and cash of a Senate or governor’s election, they matter a ton. Think about it: If the Supreme Court rules to undercut Roe v. Wade or the health care law, decisions on those policies goes to the states.
And state legislatures play a deciding role in issues like education, taxes, minimum wage, paid sick leave and more.
Most importantly for politicians, many of the state legislatures elected in 2018 will still be in office in 2020, when the country starts the byzantine task of redrawing the congressional map — a process determined differently by each state, but largely by state legislatures.
That’s a lesson Democrats learned the hard way. During the Obama administration, Republicans mounted a major, state-by-state effort that gave the party overwhelming control of redistricting.
This year, Democrats have invested significant amounts of time and money trying to regain ground before the 2020 census, which will determine districts for the next decade. Former President Barack Obama has made it a central political priority of his post-presidential years.
Last year, Democratic leaders formed an organization, chaired by former Attorney General Eric Holder, to execute a wide-ranging redistricting strategy that includes lawsuits, voter mobilization and state-level ballot initiatives.
But much of their success rests on the shoulders of people like Ms. Winter, who finds herself balancing the challenges and advantages that national focus can bring. She’s no stranger to political attention: Last year, she filed a formal sexual harassment complaint against a fellow legislator, setting off a…
