People attend a rally in Miami to advocate for passage of a Florida abortion-rights amendment. The measure won a majority but failed to reach the 60% required for passage. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The results in solid-blue Colorado, Maryland and New York were no surprise. But abortion-rights supporters also triumphed in Missouri and Montana — both states that former President Donald Trump won handily. And they won in Arizona and Nevada, heavily contested swing states.
Voters defeated an abortion-rights measure in South Dakota, but the major reproductive rights groups did not back that proposal, viewing it as too weak. In Nebraska, voters approved a ban on abortion beyond the first three months of pregnancy, canceling out a conflicting measure that would have allowed abortion until fetal viability.
Meanwhile in Florida, an abortion-rights amendment garnered about 57% of the vote but fell short of the supermajority, 60%, needed for passage.
“The thing to look at is the number, which is that 57% of Floridians voted in favor of restoring abortion rights,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the nonprofit Fairness Project, which supported the abortion-rights measures in Florida and four other states. “In any other state, in any other context, that would count as a win.”
She noted that supporters won a large majority despite strong opposition from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who directed state resources to fight the measure. Hall vowed that “this conversation about abortion in Florida is far from over.”
The nation’s abortion-rights measures got much of the attention, but voters in 41 states considered a total of 146 ballot initiatives Tuesday, weighing in on marijuana, minimum wages, crime, universal basic income, school vouchers, rent control, redistricting, greenhouse gas emissions and a host of other issues.
In addition, 11 states had governors’ races and in 44 states, voters chose state lawmakers to serve in 87 of the nation’s 99 legislative chambers.
Heading into the election, there were 40 states where one party controlled the governor’s office and both chambers of the legislature, a so-called trifecta. That left 10 states with divided government — the fewest since 1952, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a national research nonprofit serving state lawmakers, which began tracking the number in 1938.
Split control forces lawmakers to work across the aisle, whereas complete control by one party can empower its most extreme members, political scientists say.
It’s too early to say what the final party breakdown will be among state legislative chambers. However, in the days leading up to the election, political observers estimated that Democrats had a chance of seizing control of one or both legislative chambers in Alaska, Arizona, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. Republicans were close to flipping chambers in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
In addition, Democrats were hoping to dismantle Republican supermajorities in Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina, which have allowed the GOP to override the vetoes of Democratic governors in those states. But Republicans preserved their veto-proof margins in Kansas and Kentucky, while the outcome is still unclear in North Carolina.
Until Tuesday night, abortion-rights measures had racked up a perfect record of success since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2022 that there was no federal constitutional right to an abortion. In the 2022 midterm election, voters in six states — including conservative Kansas, Kentucky and Montana — endorsed abortion rights when presented with abortion-related ballot questions.
The measure Montana voters rejected in 2022 could have penalized health providers who didn’t offer lifesaving care to all infants born prematurely or after an attempted abortion. The proposal voters approved Tuesday will enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution.
This year, the most contentious abortion fight was in Florida. GOP officials used a state website to discourage support for the amendment, and state police showed up at the homes of people who signed the ballot measure petition to confirm that they actually signed it.
DeSantis, who signed a ban last year on most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, said state police were investigating possible fraud. Abortion-rights advocates blasted the visits as intimidation.
Makenzie Wilfert, 19, described the election as “nerve-wracking” after casting the first vote of her life in Oakland, Florida, on Tuesday. Wilfert said abortion rights were a major issue for her.
“It’s a very big issue affecting many women, and it’s more than just, like, you get pregnant, and you want an abortion,” she said. “It’s affecting women who do want a pregnancy but the baby’s unhealthy, and it’s affecting their health and leads to complications.”
A Florida measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana also won a majority but fell short of the 60% standard needed for passage.
Voters in two other states also considered recreational marijuana measures. North Dakota was on track to reject recreational pot for the third time. South Dakota also seemed poised to defeat a legalization proposal. South Dakota voted in favor of legalization in 2020, but that amendment was struck down by the courts. A second attempt failed in 2022.
In California, voters considered 10 ballot questions. Among other decisions, they approved a measure creating a constitutional right to same-sex marriage; brought back longer prison sentences for some drug and property crimes; and were headed toward giving the state permission to borrow billions to mitigate the threat of climate change.
California’s Proposition 33 — a proposed repeal of the state’s restrictions on local rent control — attracted national attention. Caps on rent increases provide relief to tenants, but many economists say rent control policies exacerbate affordable housing shortages by pumping up rents for uncontrolled units, reducing landlords’ incentive to maintain units, and dampening the creation of new rental housing. Californians defeated the measure, disappointing affordable housing advocates who hoped other states might follow California’s lead.
Three states — Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska — had school choice questions on the ballot. Voters were asked to decide whether public money should go to support private education. Supporters say the strategy gives parents more control over their kids’ education; critics say it takes money from traditional public schools. Voters in Kentucky and Nebraska voted against the proposals, and the same outcome appeared likely in Colorado.
In Oregon, voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to increase the minimum tax on large businesses and send the proceeds to all residents. Interest in basic or universal income programs, under which the government gives money directly to people, has grown in recent years. But critics said the Oregon proposal was poorly designed and would deter other states from starting their own programs.
And in Washington state, voters preserved the state’s cap-and-trade program, which forces polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions and invests the proceeds into clean energy and electrification projects.
“This is nothing short of the most consequential climate vote in the nation this year,” former state Sen. Reuven Carlyle, the Democrat who authored the program, told Stateline. “There’s no question that other states will be deeply reticent to embrace any type of meaningful carbon-related policy if the initiative passes.”
The repeal effort was funded by hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, who blamed the program for high gas prices and energy costs. Climate advocates say global economic factors play a much larger role in the price of gas, evidenced by the fact that Washington gas prices have now dropped below where they stood when the cap-and-trade program launched.
Washington’s program is expected to “link” with carbon markets in California and Quebec. Backers of the program expect that expansion to stabilize prices and create an easier on-ramp for more states to join the coalition. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, visited Seattle last month to urge Washingtonians to preserve the program.
Leaders in New York, which is in the process of establishing its own cap-and-trade program, said they were watching the Washington vote closely.
Stateline staff writers Alex Brown and Nada Hassanein contributed to this report.
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