On Tuesday, Signs of Progress, Too
While all eyes were on Donald Trump's win, sure signs of progress emerged on Tuesday, too.
Donald Trump’s election victory—built on a campaign of rampant misogyny and xenophobia, and fueled by a nation that feels disenfranchised and angry—is hard to stomach.
But what’s just happened shouldn't obscure the enormous gains we have made over the decades—and yes, that includes in this week’s election. Even the very presence of Kamala Harris on the ballot was the result of decades of hard work by women. These gains remind us that passion and persistence pave the way to progress.
Abortion: Wins and Losses
Three states voted to restrict abortion access.
In South Dakota, voters rejected a measure that could have granted abortion access during the first three months of pregnancy. In Nebraska, voters enshrined an existing 12-week ban in the constitution. And in Florida, a measure that would have reversed a ban on abortions after six weeks, and allowed them up to the point of viability, failed to reach a requisite 60% threshold (although it did garner 57% of the vote).
That said, seven states voted to protect or expand abortion access.
In Montana, voters wrote abortion protections into the constitution. Across Colorado, Nevada and Maryland, where protections were already in place, Americans chose to enshrine these constitutionally, too. Arizona passed a ballot measure establishing abortion as a “fundamental right” up to fetal viability, and even to allow the procedure beyond that point if a doctor deems it necessary to protect the patient’s life or health—both physical and mental.
Even in Missouri, the first state to ban abortions after the June 2022 fall of Roe v. Wade, voters chose to adopt an amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion constitutionally, a move that The New York Times described as a “stunning repudiation of one of the nation’s strictest bans on abortion.”
New Yorkers, meanwhile, voted in favor of a reproductive rights measure that protects existing access to abortion while also protecting patients against discrimination.
Diversity Delivers
When Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket in August, Trump derided her as “stupid” and “mentally disabled.” He falsely suggested she had not always identified as Black.
This might be unsurprising commentary from a strongman who has built his image on vitriol and who the American people voted for in a landslide, but it’s also worth noting that Americans did in fact opt for more—not less—diversity among their political representatives.
In Delaware, Lisa Blunt Rochester succeeded in her run for the Senate, while in Maryland Angela Alsobrooks also prevailed. Their wins double the number of Black women ever elected to the U.S. Senate—from two to four. (It’s nowhere near enough. But it’s a start.) Two men chalked up firsts, too: Andy Kim became the first Asian American elected to represent New Jersey in the Senate (Kim is also the first Korean-American elected to the Senate) while Republican Bernie Moreno became the first Latino to represent Ohio.
Meanwhile, Delaware elected Sarah McBride, who now becomes the country’s first openly transgender person elevated to Congress. According to Reuters, the 34-year-old became the first openly transgender person to serve as a state senator when she was elected in 2020, the first to speak at a U.S. national political party convention in 2016, and the first to intern at the White House in 2012, under President Barack Obama.
“Marking these milestones does two things: One, it celebrates the increasing diversity that we are seeing in women’s political representation, whether it be in a state or nationally,” Kelly Dittmar, the director of research at Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics told the Associated Press. “But at the same time,” she added, “it reminds us that we have more work to do.”
Josie Cox
Emma Haslett
