The GOP agenda is a loser with the American public. On issue after issue—tax breaks for the rich, attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, stripping away reproductive freedom, making it harder to vote—Republicans are totally out of step with the majority of voters. They know they can't win on the merits of their policies, so their only solution is to try to rig the system. The party that once preached the values of freedom and democracy now seeks only to erode them.
So when we hear about a desire to "return power to the states," let's be clear on what the GOP actually wants: to restrict the freedom of voters and hoard power—by any means necessary—to cement minority rule and pass their extremist, anti-democratic agenda.
It represents a stunning hypocrisy. After the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling that overturned abortion as a constitutional right, Republicans celebrated, claiming that abortion should be an issue best left to the voters and the states. Yet now that the abortion right has come for the states, they are trying to rig the system to cut voters out of the conversation.
We saw this play out clearly just this week in the interconnected fights for democracy and abortion access in Ohio. After the Dobbs ruling, the Ohio GOP watched in fear as abortion access won in all six states where abortion was on the ballot—including deep red Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana.
When a (now official) citizen-led initiative to protect abortion access appeared likely to make the November ballot in Ohio, the state's gerrymandered Republican legislative supermajority did what the GOP does best: tried to game the system. Hoping for low turnout, they called an August special election to vote on Issue 1, an effort to raise the threshold for citizen-led amendments to pass from a simple majority to 60 percent of the vote.
The Ohio GOP, backed by out-of-state conservative billionaires, tried to eliminate the principle of one person one vote and destroy majority rule in their state—all in a desperate attempt to thwart their constituents' desires to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution.
Immediately, the Vote No in August coalition, the Ohio Democratic Party, volunteers from the Swing Left community, and our grassroots partners got to work connecting with Ohio voters to raise awareness about this undemocratic power grab, and to encourage Ohioans to "vote no on Issue 1." And on August 8, Ohioans turned out at historic levels for an August special election to defeat GOP extremism where it matters most: at the ballot box.
GOP state lawmakers across the country are watching closely. And so are we. That's why in addition to organizing ahead of Ohio's abortion ballot initiative in November, Swing Left is also focused on the Virginia General Assembly elections this year. The Virginia GOP and conservative Governor Glenn Youngkin are close to gaining a trifecta in the state, and if they win in November, they could strip voting rights and reproductive freedom from millions of people. We're not going to let that happen.
Conservatives experienced a long-sought victory when the ideological zealots that comprise the Supreme Court majority struck down Roe. But it's proving to be a short lived win in the larger fight for reproductive freedom—and for democracy itself.
More than 85 percent of Americans want abortion to be legal, and election after election over the last year has proven that folks are willing to knock on doors, write letters to voters, call their neighbors, and show up to vote to protect their freedoms.
Our Swing Left community and our partners are not agonizing—we're organizing. And we'll keep winning to protect our rights and our democracy.
Yasmin Radjy is the Executive Director of Swing Left, a national organization formed in 2017 that has become one of the largest drivers of grassroots volunteers and donors to support Democrats in key competitive races up and down the ballot. Previously, she served in the Biden-Harris administration as a Senior Advisor supporting American Rescue Plan implementation at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and as National Political Director at Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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