November’s Results and the Road Ahead
Our view from the states as 2021 approaches.
We entered the 2020 election cycle on a high: the Flippable community had helped flip three chambers during the 2018 midterms and the entire Virginia General Assembly last November. The task at hand this year, wrestling state legislative chambers from GOP control and establishing pro-democracy majorities ahead of redistricting, was tall — so we doubled down on most of the states we had targeted in 2018 and added Iowa and Ohio to the list.
Today, more than a week after Election Day, the results in the states are sobering. Democrats failed to flip a single state legislative chamber, which will have serious implications for redistricting in 2021. It’s particularly frustrating to see Democrats locked out of legislative majorities in states where there is a desire for Democratic leadership. Voters in Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have all elected Democratic governors, yet their states’ gerrymandered maps continued to work in the GOP’s favor, putting Democratic candidates at a disadvantage that ultimately proved too difficult to overcome.
But even in the midst of disappointing outcomes, we do have reasons to be proud. To date, thirty of the candidates we supported this year have won their races. These candidates include Arizona State Senator-elect Christine Marsh, whom Flippable first supported in 2018. After losing her race by 267 votes in 2018, Senator-elect Marsh flipped her district, LD-28, winning by 510 votes this month.* Fellow 2018 alums State Representatives Michelle Beckley (TX HD-65), Steve Malagari (PA HD-53), Angela Witwer (MI HD-76), and Erin Zwiener (TX HD-45) won re-election.
At the chamber level, three of our candidates won their races in the Wisconsin State Assembly and helped block a GOP supermajority, which — in addition to protecting Democratic Governor Tony Evers’s veto — prevents the GOP from having absolute control over redistricting.
As we look to the year ahead, even in the face of an unfavorable redistricting process, we cannot let up in the fight for a stronger democracy. Let’s commit to registering and mobilizing more voters in gerrymandered districts, and let’s help communities hold elected officials accountable. We’ve already begun this work by supporting community-based civic organizations through Blueprint, the donation platform we launched with Swing Left earlier this year — and we’re only getting started.
By continuing to invest in proven organizations and quality candidates, we can build a better future in the states.
*Arizona State Senator-elect Christine Marsh was ahead by 510 votes as of 9:55AM ET on November 12, 2020.
