ANNAPOLIS, Md. (October 27, 2021): Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) will make an appearance at Gerry’s Partisan Pizza Truck on Friday to support fair redistricting. Launched by RepresentUs, Gerry’s Partisan Pizza Truck offers free pizza and information to citizens in gerrymandered districts to show how rigged maps undermine democracy.
Gov. Hogan will speak at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, October 29 on School Street (between Church Circle and State Circle) in Downtown Annapolis. He will be joined by former State Sen. Jim Brochin, board member of Fair Maps Maryland, and Ellie Collinson, President of RepresentUs Education Fund. The pizza truck will serve free pizza in crazy shapes.
“Using pizza, we are showing how politicians slice up districts to their own advantage, so they can get a larger piece of the pie. The people of Maryland deserve a redistricting process that is fair, transparent and accountable,” said Ellie Collinson, President of RepresentUs Education Fund. “Here in Maryland and in red states and blue states around the country, we are at risk of career politicians picking their voters in back rooms.”
Gov. Hogan created the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, which solicited public input before releasing draft voting maps. The commission’s final draft congressional and state senate maps both received “A’s” from the Redistricting Report Card, a one-of-a-kind tool developed by RepresentUs and Princeton Gerrymandering Project that determines fairness of proposed maps. Legislative leaders created their own commission, which has so far not involved the public or proposed maps.
Following a three-day pop-up pizza shop demonstration in Austin that attracted hundreds of citizens eager to learn about gerrymandering, RepresentUs launched the two-week food truck tour that will travel to key states where politicians control the once-a-decade redistricting process. The truck will also make stops in Greensboro, N.C., Raleigh, N.C., Tallahassee, Fla., Orlando, Fla., Harrisburg, Pa., Pittsburgh, Pa., Madison, Wis. and Appleton, Wis. The truck uses fun gimmicks, like napkins that explain gerrymandering and pizza in the shape of gerrymandered districts.
Check out this video that uses pizza to explain gerrymandering and how it disenfranchises voters. RepresentUs’ Gerrymandering Threat Index found that 35 states, including Maryland, are at extreme or high risk of gerrymandering because politicians control the redistricting process. Nearly 90 percent of voters across the political spectrum -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- oppose the practice.
“People hate gerrymandering as much as they love pizza. Using pizza, we can show how politicians create half-baked maps that leave voters without any meaningful opportunity to hold their politicians accountable,” said Collinson.