Even In a Republican Wave, Voters Passed Working Class Policies
Early results from ballot measures around the country showed strong support for higher benefits and pay, public services, abortion rights, and more.
by Paul Blest, More Perfect Union
Former President Donald Trump won the White House this week, sweeping every swing state and shifting even safe Democratic states dramatically to the right. But on the same night, many of the voters in the states that he won also directly passed policies aimed at improving the economic conditions of the working class.
In exit poll after exit poll, voters cited inflation and the cost of living as a top concern, and the way they voted on ballot measures showed it.
In Missouri, which overwhelmingly went for Trump and re-elected conservative Sen. Josh Hawley, voters passed a measure that raises the minimum wage to $15 per hour and guarantees paid sick leave. Missouri, which was a swing state as recently as 2008, has a history of electing Republicans while passing worker-friendly initiatives; in 2018, during Hawley’s first run, voters there repealed a right-to-work law and passed a $12 minimum wage. Nebraskans also joined their neighbors to the east in overwhelmingly voting for paid sick leave on Tuesday.
Alaska is still counting votes, but is likely to pass a package of pro-labor policies including a $15 minimum wage, paid sick leave, and a ban on “captive audience” meetings that employers use to bust unionization efforts. Alaska voted for Trump by double digits, but has one of the highest unionization rates in the country; we went to Alaska last month to talk to people about the state’s unorthodox politics.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, Trump appears poised to flip the state back after losing it narrowly in 2020. Even still, an enormous 75 percent of voters cast a ballot against a measure that would have reduced the minimum wage for tipped employees; a measure to raise the minimum wage was abandoned earlier this year in order to dedicate resources to fighting this rollback, and it appears to have worked.
Even amid right-wing backlash over curriculums and pandemic school closures, public education won overwhelming support on Tuesday. Nebraskans repealed a school voucher law passed by the legislature; Kentucky voters rejected an amendment to the state constitution allowing the legislature to fund unaccountable private schools; and Coloradans appeared likely to reject a “school choice” constitutional amendment. Californians also voted to issue $10 billion in bonds to fund construction for public schools and community colleges.
We covered the Nebraska battle earlier this year:
And on abortion rights and access, which disproportionately impacts poor and working-class people, voters in Missouri and Arizona overturned abortion bans to codify access in their state constitutions. Several other states also approved abortion rights measures — including Montana, which codified existing protections into its constitution.
It wasn’t all positive news for abortion rights advocates, however: in Florida, a vote to overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban gained a 57 percent majority but failed to meet the onerous three-fifths threshold to change the state constitution. Voters in South Dakota and Nebraska, meanwhile, voted down efforts to expand access.
As national Democrats recover from their losses and Republicans begin to formulate their agenda for the next two years, it’s clear that voters across the country are still demanding policies to protect public services, expand labor and abortion rights, and boost wages and benefits for working-class people.