GOOD NEWS FROM THE ELECTION
There was a lot of good news from the election for Democrats, progressives, and America. First, one piece of semi-good news: Despite what Trump and his supporters may claim, Trump did not win with a landslide or a mandate. He did win the popular vote but got less than half of the votes cast. His margin of victory was about 1.5%; not a landslide in any rational analysis. It was one of the closest presidential elections in history. Moreover, almost a third of eligible voters didn’t vote, which means Trump was elected by about one-third of eligible voters. Finally, Republican margins of control in both the House and the Senate are very thin. If four Republicans in either chamber don’t vote in lock step with their party, the Republicans don’t have a majority to pass legislation. In the Senate, seven Democrats would have to vote with all the Republicans to overcome a filibuster. In conclusion, Trump’s and the Republicans’ win in the election was quite narrow.
Now for the real bright spots in the election.
State supreme courts will be a key firewall for protecting civil rights and democracy, given the U.S. Supreme Court’s controlling majority of six radical, right-wing reactionary justices. Democrats won state supreme court races in Arkansas, Kentucky, Michigan (2 seats, each by over a 20 percent margin), Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, and North Carolina. These wins occurred despite Trump winning in all these states except Minnesota.
There are some interesting stories that emerge from these races. In Mississippi, an outsider, populist, and public defender promoting criminal justice reform ran against an incumbent ultra-conservative woman. He won by roughly ten percentage points. In Montana, two seats were up for election. One of the Democrats ran as a moderate, pledging to work cooperatively with the Republican legislature. The other ran as a progressive, promising voters she would stand up to attacks on individual rights, especially women’s rights. The progressive won and the moderate lost. [1]
In North Carolina, Democrats won the races for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state.
There were a range of state ballot issues where progressive positions won. Reproductive rights won in multiple states in multiple ways. In Arizona and Missouri, voters overturned state abortion bans. In Colorado, Maryland, Montana, and Nevada, voters passed measures establishing a state constitutional right to abortion. In New York, voters strengthened constitutional protections for women’s rights, including abortion rights. In Florida, a ballot measure to add protection for reproductive rights to the state constitution got over 57% of the vote but failed to achieve the 60% threshold required to amend the constitution. [2]
In Alaska and Missouri, voters approved increases in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In Alaska, Missouri, and Nebraska, voters approved access to paid sick leave. In Alaska and Oregon, voters passed measures supporting unionization efforts. In Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska, voters rejected school voucher initiatives that would have taken steps to undermine funding for public schools and to privatize K-12 education. These are some examples of progressive measures that were approved by voters at the state level; there were also progressive measures passed at the local level. [3]
All of this underscores that progressive policies, particularly economic ones, are broadly popular. For Democrats to win nationally, they need to be loud and clear in their messaging about their support for progressive policies, especially economic ones. They also have to stop sending a mixed message by expressing support for wealthy corporations and individuals. They must be loud and clear about calling out corporations for price gouging that consumers experienced as inflation. They must be loud and clear about their support for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from big banks that charge onerous overdraft fees and monopolistic credit card companies that charge usurious interest rates and late fees, for example. Democrats must be loud and clear about their support for increasing the minimum wage, fairer overtime pay, stopping wage theft, and ending non-compete clauses that prevent workers from switching jobs to advance their careers.
President Biden and his administration have taken important steps to promote these progressive policies. They have taken stronger action to rein in monopolistic corporations, to support unions, and to mitigate the negative effects of global trade than any president in over 50 years. However, most workers haven’t felt the effects yet and their distrust of Democrats runs deep, given Democrats’ years of support for huge corporations over workers and consumers, promotion of global trade that undermined good jobs and wages in the U.S., and failure to support unions.
To win nationally, Democrats need to improve their messaging and work diligently to promote progressive economic policies, even in the face of blockades from the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress. Democrats also need to clearly and loudly point out how the policies of Trump and Republicans are hurting workers, consumers, and families, i.e., everyday Americans. This could and should lay the groundwork for capturing at least one house of Congress in 2026 and the presidency in 2028.
[1] Stern, M. J., 11/19/24, “This election’s surprising bright spot for progressives is a very big deal,” Slate (https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/11/2024-election-progressives-judicial-races-allison-riggs.html)
[2] Warren, E., 11/17/24, “Update on statewide election results for abortion rights,” Email newsletter
[3] Cohn, E., & Sherer, J., 11/7/24, “A review of key 2024 ballot measures,” Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/blog/a-review-of-key-2024-ballot-measures-voters-backed-progressive-policy-measures/)