Heidi M Przybyla

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — After their party's shocking White House defeat, top Democrats are shifting their efforts to rebuild political power by focusing on a series of governors' races and redistricting legal battles.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Rep. Nancy Pelosi have been quietly courting major party donors during a series of weekend trips to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and New York in an effort to convince them to channel more funding to local and state elections — with a particular focus on the next generation of governors who will oversee redistricting around the 2020 Census -- as well as legal challenges to gerrymandered congressional districts.

It’s the start of a routine they plan to keep in the lead up to the 2018 election.

“I don’t care who the president of the United States is, it doesn’t matter in the sense that, if we don’t have governors to stop these horrible maps, they’re going to pass a lot of this stuff at the state level,” said McAuliffe, a Democrat who finishes his term in January.

“Politically, this is what I’m going to do. I’m obsessed,” McAuliffe said during an interview with USA TODAY at a Washington hotel.

“The more we travel, people get it. I don’t say this lightly, but the future of our party comes down to these governor’s elections,” said McAuliffe. “And to have Nancy Pelosi sitting next to me, who is Congress, saying this is very important,” he said.

The Democratic Party is down to 16 governors and shed more than 900 state legislative seats during President Barack Obama’s presidency, all while over decades the Republican Party — supported by deep-pocketed business interests and donors including the Koch Brothers — has funneled millions into promoting down-ballot candidates and advancing state-level laws including looser gun laws and legislation restricting the right of labor unions to organize.

With Trump in the White House, many of those policies are now being discussed at the federal level, putting on display the consequences of the party’s neglect of state and local elections as Democratic donors instead built infrastructure around supporting presidential candidates and causes, including the environment or think tanks like the Center for American Progress, to advance the Democratic agenda in Washington.

“Now our back is against the wall,” said McAuliffe.

In 2020, states will again reconsider legislative maps around the Census. Even if Democrats can’t change the composition of state legislatures in a single cycle, governors have veto power. “If we do not do well with these governor’s races, our party as we know it will be out of the game for a decade. There will be so much damage done at the state level,” said McAuliffe.

The group McAuliffe and Pelosi are promoting is the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, chaired by former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder. It was announced in October of 2016 after he and Obama had been discussing the issue for several years.

The goal is to make it the hub for identifying state elections critical in the next round of redistricting around the 2020 Census, fund legal challenges to congressional maps that Democrats say are gerrymandered, or unfairly drawn to limit Democratic votes, and pursue ballot initiatives and referendums to advocate for fairer congressional maps.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU’s School of Law, extreme partisan bias in congressional maps accounts for at least 16-17 Republican seats in the current Congress, a large portion of the 24 Democrats would need to regain control in 2020.

McAuliffe and Pelosi’s collaboration began a day after the November election, when McAuliffe phoned Pelosi, who has plenty of demands from other organizations more directly impacting her House members, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Shortly thereafter, the two called a meeting with Obama that lasted more than an hour to discuss how they could help.

“My responsibility is to elect a Democratic Congress, but I think one of the most important things we can do electorally is to have more fairness in our system,” said Pelosi.

“It’s about our pursuit to protect our democracy and to make sure everyone has a right to vote. It’s a bigger vision that we have,” she said.

The most recent event was in Washington, headlined by Obama, his first fundraiser since leaving office. According to someone who attended, every single question to the president had to do with redistricting, underscoring the importance donors are beginning to assign to the issue.

Republicans now control the governor’s mansion and both legislative chambers in 25 states, while Democrats control five, and the policy implications have been significant. Before 2010, just two states had voter ID laws; by 2011, such laws were introduced in 43 states. In 2005, only Florida had a pro-gun “stand your ground” law; by 2013, 24 states had similar laws. In the past 17 years, six states have passed a law limiting a worker’s ability to organize through labor unions.

“What people haven’t realized is the systematic, state-level rolling back of issues important to Democrats,” said McAuliffe. “Once you explain what’s happening in the states, boy a light bulb goes off,” he said. “I’ve been obsessive,” said McAuliffe, singling out governor’s races in Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania as among the most critical.

Democrats say they have a chance to make major gains given Trump’s unpopularity. While the 2010 election was a major sweep for Republican governors, that means many of those seats are now in contention and Republicans are playing defense in 27 of 38 races over the next two years, 15 of which are open seats that tend to be more competitive. Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won nine of the GOP-held states last fall. What’s more, a record 60 Democratic candidates have already announced, according to the Democratic Governors Association.

“Re­pub­lic­ans are hugely over­ ex­posed to po­tential losses in the gubernat­ori­al races be­cause of their suc­cesses in the last two midterms,” Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, wrote in a recent column.

“Our party strategic made a big mistake in that we focus on the presidential elections every four years,” said McAuliffe. “And then after the election people go away,” he said. The result is the party’s been devastated at the local level, allowing the GOP to rewrite maps and pass major legislation.

“All we want are fair lines,” said McAuliffe. He cited Virginia as an example, where statewide office holders, from the governor to the lieutenant governor and attorney general are Democrats; where Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton won three consecutive presidential elections. Yet Republicans occupy eight congressional seats, to three for Democrats.

“This isn’t about us getting in charge and letting us do what they did to us,” said Pelosi. “It’s about our country,” she said.

In Virginia, McAuliffe broke an all-time veto record, blocking legislation including a bill to defund Planned Parenthood as well as one requiring voters to fax in a driver’s license to obtain absentee voting ballots.

Some lawmakers pressed for a 20-week abortion ban, bills to broaden access to machine guns and a stricter “bathroom bill” than in North Carolina. They also voted for a resolution declaring the anniversary of Roe v. Wade a “day of tears,” which Democrats called a “woman shaming” measure; and to allow companies to keep information about chemicals used in fracking secret from the public.

“I’ve lived it and I know what happens with gerrymandered districts,” said McAuliffe.

Read More:

Lueders: How pols gerrymander voting districts