In recent years, the ballot initiative process has seen many traditional progressive policy ideas pass, even in red or purple states. According to the Fairness Project, a nonprofit organization that helps support progressive ballot measures, dozens of initiatives have passed with bipartisan support in recent years
“I call these bills ‘death by a thousand cuts,’” said Kelly Hall, the executive director of the progressive ballot initiative group The Fairness Project. “When you hear about each one in isolation, they seem like not that big a deal. But taken together, they have an exclusionary effect on people’s participation in democracy.”
On Friday, the Fairness Project was featured on NPR’s flagship news show, All Things Considered, which highlighted the nonpartisan nonprofit’s record of winning ballot measure campaigns on progressive issues in red and purple states.
NPR highlighted the Fairness Project’s strong track record of supporting and winning ballot measure campaigns on progressive issues, primarily in red and purple states where popular policies have little to no chance of passing through conservative state legislatures.
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.
There have also been recent successes with ballot measures for economic and social justice, owing to the work of the Fairness Project. Founded in 2015 by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, the project has won 31 of 33 ballot measures (affecting 18 million people) to raise wages, stop predatory payday lenders, expand health-care access, and more.
The Fairness Project is actively monitoring these attacks and has organized over $5.6 million since 2021 to fight back as part of its Ballot Measure Rescue Campaign.
Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which backs progressive state ballot measures across the country, described last year’s abortion rights victories as “accelerant on an already burning fire.” But Hall also pointed to recent triumphs on issues such as Medicaid expansion and minimum wage hikes as driving factors.
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