A left-leaning advocacy group called the Fairness Project has created a playbook for using ballot initiatives to go around GOP-led state legislatures. Since 2016, it has backed successful initiatives to raise the minimum wage and expand Medicaid.
LA Times: Gavin Newsom is threatening to end-run California voters. It reflects a terrible trend
“It’s a damning indictment of representative democracy when elected officials are scared of the will of their own voters,” said Alexis Magnan-Callaway of the Fairness Project, a union-backed advocacy group that focuses on state ballot measures.
The Electorette Podcast: When Democracy Fails, Write Your Own Laws
In this episode of The Electorette, host Jen Taylor-Skinner is joined by Kelly Hall, Executive Director of the Fairness Project, to discuss how ballot measures are transforming the political landscape.
Politico: Democrats’ big bet on the ‘big beautiful bill’
“Medicaid has a broader and broader appeal the more people that are on it, and the more people who know someone who’s on it. That’s incredibly powerful politically,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which backed state Medicaid referendums.
Op-ed / US News: Angry at Trump? Don’t Waste Your Time Calling Congress — Do This Instead.
Voters are going to have to do politicians’ jobs for them by passing good policies on our own.
By Kelly Hall
PBS NewsHour: How lawmakers are restricting citizen-led ballot initiatives
Kelly Hall: "Instead of having a fair fight, a really public conversation about the issues, where politicians or other citizens who disagree on an issue say, let's persuade each other, let's have a debate."
Oklahoma Legislature Attacks Citizens’ Right To Initiate Ballot Measures, Targeting Urban Voters
“SB 1027 explicitly diminishes the voices of urban voters. It’s cowardly, antidemocratic, and an insult to the general principles of one person, one vote, that has guided American elections since the civil rights movement. All voters, regardless of ideology or address, should have their voices heard equally,” said Kelly Hall
Defying Will of Missouri Voters, Politicians Force a Vote to Ban Abortion
“What we’re seeing today is nothing more than a flagrant power grab by out of touch politicians who have taken it upon themselves to supplant the will of the voters with their own unpopular political agenda,” said Kelly Hall, Executive Director of the Fairness Project, the largest funder of abortion rights ballot measures in 2024.
NPR: GOP-led states are passing new restrictions for voters to get issues on the ballot
Kelly Hall — the executive director of the Fairness Project, a group that works to pass economic and social justice policies through ballot measures — said she's seen more state bills to limit citizen-initiated ballot measures this year than ever before.