In the News

“In swing states and red states alike,” Hall says, “we have to assume that voters are coming to a ballot measure with a different frame of mind than any candidate choice, and keep open minds ourselves about who is on the table for a ballot measure.”

Contributions came from several progressive nonprofits: Notably $450,000 from the Fairness Project of Washington and $150,000 from Article IV, a New York nonprofit. The League of Women Voters of Arkansas contributed $21,105.

The Medicaid expansion campaign is backed by the progressive Fairness Project, which has supported expansion ballot campaigns across the country.

“The expanded use of ballot measures in recent years is a direct response to the increasing polarization of our political system,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a group that funds and organizes state ballot measure efforts across the country.

“What we’re seeing is red states trying to curtail this tool that citizens have used really successfully to move policies that are otherwise stuck for, usually, political reasons,” said Hannah Ledford, deputy executive director and campaigns director for the Fairness Project.

“It’s easy to lose sight of how long of a fight it has been for Medicaid expansion in so many states around the country,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which supports Medicaid expansion ballot measures across the country. “We’re almost working ourselves out of a job.”

Alexis Magnan-Callaway, communications and digital strategy director with the Fairness Project, says her organization planned to back a measure in Mississippi to expand Medicaid, but had to put the effort on hold after the state Supreme Court’s decision on medical cannabis.

"No one should be trapped in debt simply because they needed medical care, yet tens of millions of Americans are stuck with thousands of dollars of medical debt," said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a national nonprofit that funds, organizes and advocates for ballot measures and is supporting Proposition 209.