FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2022

Victories Nationwide Argue for More Progressive Economic Policies

Voters made their voices heard and cast more than 40 million ballots this midterm election, signaling a mandate for people-first progressive economic policies. Democrats successfully protected their Senate majority. However, after a tough few post-pandemic years, with Republicans playing up economic anxieties after refusing to pass policies to help the majority of Americans, the Democratic vote fell short in some key districts, leading to a slim Republican majority in the House.

This year, Community Change Action and our partners organized more than 1.8 millions voters in our priority states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin, through a multilayered program that mixed traditional and digital organizing, as well as relational voter engagement tactics on the ground and through innovations on TikTok.

Community Change Action Co-Presidents Lorella Praeli and Dorian Warren issued the following statement: 

“We’ve proved in so many ways this cycle that progressives can mobilize a typically underperforming portion of the electorate by investing in tactics that rely on diverse trusted messengers to appeal quickly and efficiently to low-propensity, but high-potential voters: our relational voter turnout, Tik Tok influencer campaign, fun events like Drag Out the Vote and comedy performances, and most importantly our partnerships with groups on the ground who are in these communities year-round talking about issues that matter to them. Organizing Black and brown communities is a marathon–one that you can win when your commitment extends beyond the fall.

“We celebrate the reelections of Senators Kelly and Cortez Masto, Governor Evers, Lujan Grisham and Whitme,r and Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist – champions of working families who have committed to putting people first and fighting for solutions that will make child care affordable, create access to affordable and safe housing, enshrine our right to an abortion, and make an expanded child tax credit permanent. In places where we presented people a new way forward to bring affordability and stability to their lives, we beat out GOP extremism that feeds off of fear and anxiety.

“Beyond electing champions, people voted to protect our rights and secure economic justice policies for families and undocumented folks. For example, voters in New Mexico passed a constitutional amendment to make child care affordable–a model that Democrats can replicate nationwide. In Michigan, voters approved Proposal 2 that will protect our democracy and create early voting, and Proposal 3 to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. In Arizona, Prop 308 will give undocumented students access to in-state tuition.

“Unfortunately, we did not experience the same momentum in every race. It’s natural to blame the party in power when you’re feeling the squeeze of inflation in your pocketbook. But if we take this as a lesson to moderate our positions around an economy that works for all of us, we would be missing the larger reality – the need to meet people where they’re at and advance solutions that truly support people – and leave a vacuum for authoritarianism to grow.”

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