Lawmakers in minority party paying a price amid divisions
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Republicans removed the state’s only nonbinary legislator from House committees after the lawmaker provided refuge to a transgender rights activist.
In Florida, two Democratic leaders were arrested for participating in a protest over abortion restrictions.
And in Tennessee, three Democratic House members are facing expulsion for using a bullhorn in the House chamber to show support for demonstrators demanding gun control.
In an increasingly polarized political atmosphere, experts say these kinds of harsh punishments for minority party members standing up for principles they believe in are becoming more common, especially when acts of civil disobedience clash with the rigid policies and procedures of legislative decorum.
The modern-day division between Democrats and Republicans is at its highest level since immediately after the Civil War, said Scot Schraufnagel, a political science professor at Northern Illinois University who has studied and written about political incivility.
While many Republican leaders are complaining about the arrest of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony criminal charges, it’s members of the Democratic minority in GOP-led states who have been facing a crackdown for their political actions.
“Over the last few years, I feel like the extremism has increased and the polarization has gotten worse,” said Oklahoma House Minority Leader Rep. Cyndi Munson, whose Democratic colleague Rep. Mauree Turner was formally censured by the GOP-controlled House after a transgender rights protester involved in a scuffle with Capitol police sought refuge in Turner’s office.
“Obviously we’re seeing this in Oklahoma ... this desire (for Republicans) to use their power to silence anyone who doesn’t think like them.”
Turner, one of the few Black legislators in the Legislature and the first openly nonbinary and Muslim person elected to state office in Oklahoma, was told they could be restored to their committees if they apologized to the House and to the Capitol patrol.
“I can’t apologize for loving the people of Oklahoma enough to fight for their rights,” Turner said.
In Tennessee, Republicans will vote Thursday on whether to kick Democratic Reps. Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson out of their offices for taking to the front of the House and chanting back and forth with gun control supporters who packed the gallery days after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville that killed six people, including three children. Expulsions in the Tennessee General Assembly are rare and typically center on criminal activity.
In Florida, Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book is not expected to face any legislative discipline after she and Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried were arrested and charged with trespassing for refusing to leave a protest in Tallahassee against a bill to ban abortions after six weeks.