i know all eyes are on the presidential candidates for this election, and rightfully so, but some very wonderful and important things are happening statewide that should be celebrated and highlighted, so here’s a few:
Florida passed Amendment 2, which will raise minimum wage to $15/hour by 2026
South Dakota, Montana, Arizona and New Jersey all passed an amendment that legalized marijuana
Utah will now be removing gendered language in the Utah Constitution and will replace it with gender-neutral language
California passed Prop 17, which restores voting rights to previously imprisoned citizens
Delaware elected Sarah McBride, the first ever openly trans state senator
Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones are the first ever openly gay black members of congress
Cori Bush is the first ever woman of color to win a seat in Congress in Missouri
Mauree Turner became the first non-binary state lawmaker in America and the first Muslim member of the Oklahoma state house
Oregon has become the first state to decriminalize all drugs (small amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs will have lesser punishments, similar to traffic tickets, and no jail time.)
Kim Jackson is the first out LGBTQ+ state senator in Georgia
UPDATED WITH MORE GOOD NEWS:
Shevrin D. Jones is Florida’s first opnely LGBTQ+ state senator
Jabari Brisport became New York’s first gay Black member of the house
Arizona flipped blue for the first time in 24 years
Michele Rayner-Goolsby became the first Black LGBTQ woman in the Florida Legislature
Voters in Colorado overwhelmingly rejected Prop 115, a state ballot measure that would have banned abortions after a fetus reaches 22 weeks gestational age. In rejecting the initiative, Colorado remains one of the most progressive states in the country on reproductive rights
Arizona will now send two Democrats to the Senate for the first time since 1951, thanks to the win of ex-astronaut Captain Mark Kelly.
Democrats have flipped the senate seat in Colorado, with the win of former Gov. John Hickenlooper
Mississippi is removing the confederate flag from their symbology
Marie Newman, who has been titled ‘a leader of the pro-choice movement’, will now represent Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District in Congress
Nevada became the first state to protect same-sex marriage in it’s constitution
Immigrant rights activist and former public defender José Garza won the race for District Attorney of Travis County, Texas
Michigan passed Proposal 20-2, which requires police to have a search warrant to access a person’s electronic data and electronic communications.
Washington approved Referendum 90, which requires all school districts to provide age appropriate, comprehensive sex ed at all grade levels
Colorado passed the first paid family/ medical leave program
Mississippi passed an ammendment that legalized medical marijuana
Denver overwhelmingly voted to pass Ballot Measure 2J. which lifts the city’s more than 30-year-old ban on pit bulls
New Mexico elected all women of color to it’s House delegation
Vermont elected the state’s first openly transgender legislator, Taylor Small
Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, all won re-election in the House
Nebraska passed a constitutional amendment to the state constitution that closes the loophole of the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment that allowed slavery as a punishment for crimes
Rhode Island passed a measure to rename the state, officially naming it Rhode Island and not The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, due to connections to slavery
Oregon passed measure 109, the first state to legalize psilocybin (mushrooms) for mental heath treatments
Hawai’i elected native Hawaiian Kaiali’i “Kai” Kahele, a Democrat, to the House of Representatives. He is one of 6 Native members of the House who will be sworn in in January
Utah passed legislation that removes language from the state constitution that allows the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments (no more prison labor!)
Multnomah county, where most of Portland sits, just voted for tuition-free preschool for everybody ages 4-5
