A Democratic member of Mississippi’s state House has introduced legislation that would “for all official purposes within the State of Mississippi,” change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

Update: Daniel Cherry of Mississippi Public Broadcasting just talked with Rep. Stephen Holland — the Democratic lawmaker who’s getting a lot of attention for introducing a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

Holland told Daniel that so many of his Republican colleagues seem to want to push anything or anyone Mexican out of the state that he’s just trying to “embrace” their cause and help them out. In other words, he’s introduced a bill that he thinks will make a satirical point by being outrageous.

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