We Just Keep Winning, Part 2!
by Janet Singer, CGB Political Director
Democrats and pro-democracy, pro-reproductive-rights voters keep showing up in huge numbers to fight for our rights and freedoms. Most competitive elections are won by very small margins, but in 2022, following the Dobbs decision in June, we won 5 House special elections by an average of 7 percentage points, improving on our winning margins from 2020. We also bettered our early vote turnout from the record-breaking years of 2018 and 2020. Our streak continues in 2023. Democrats have outperformed the partisan lean (the strength of the partisan preference in a given district) by an average of 10 percentage points in the 38 special elections held so far this year.
And yes, we just did it again. Last week in Ohio, we defeated another GOP attempt at voter suppression. The Republican-controlled Ohio legislature had tried to sneak an initiative onto the ballot in a special election in August, figuring no one would notice. While the last Ohio August election had an 8% turnout, this time the turnout was more than 4 times as high, a stunning 34%. That is nearly three-quarters of the turnout for the state’s high-profile Senate race last year. It’s hard to emphasize enough what it means that we were able to defeat this measure by 14% in a state that has trended from purple to red over the last few election cycles. We have to credit the incredible Democratic turnout machine that was formed beginning in 2016 and has grown into an ecosystem of activist groups like ours, an ecosystem that makes millions of voter contacts and raises considerable funds so that our campaigns can be staffed up and we can contact more voters. A robust early vote meant more people on our calling and door lists had already voted, so we could reach out to potential voters much further down those lists. This election showed that voters can still serve as a check on the power of extremely gerrymandered legislatures to take away fundamental rights. Ironically, the Republican overreach that brought about this election energized Democratic voters, supplied Democratic organizers with more early funding and volunteers, and gave us the ability to lay the groundwork for the important races of 2024.
In addition, though this ballot initiative wasn’t directly about abortion, our victory means that an amendment ensuring reproductive rights can be passed in November by a simple majority of Ohio voters. Getting that initiative passed will be our next task in Ohio and then it’s on to reelecting Senator Sherrod Brown and Congress members Marcy Kaptur, Greg Landsman, and Emilia Sykes. Signature gathering has begun for another proposed amendment to the Ohio constitution: the creation of a citizen-led bipartisan redistricting commission to draw the state’s congressional and legislative maps.
Ohio’s August referendum wasn’t the only 2023 election that showcased the voting power of the pro-democracy coalition. On August 1st, new Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Janet Protaseiwicz, who won a massive 11-point victory in the otherwise evenly divided state, was sworn in. Already, cases to overturn gerrymandered state legislative maps, the ban on drop boxes, and the abortion ban are in the pipeline to be heard by the new liberal majority on the Court.
Fresh off those wins, we now need to turn our attention to the next hot spots for Democratic activism: the November 2023 state legislature races in Virginia and the special election in New Hampshire on September 19. Sign up here for Crimson Goes Blue’s canvassing in New Hampshire (more information below) and stay tuned for more information about our upcoming Virginia phone bank.
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