With less than two weeks left to Election Day, most eyes are tuned to the battle for control of Congress, but some groups are laser focused on securing majorities in state legislatures across the country
At the same time, one Democratic group called Forward Majority is supporting candidates in 25 seats across three state legislatures — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona. They’re spending over $20 million this cycle, joining another Democratic group called the States Project, which plans to spend $60 million by the end of this cycle in legislative races in five states.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Vicky Hausman, the co-founder of Forward Majority said, “We are trying to flip state legislative chambers in places like Michigan, where the Michigan Senate has been in Republican hands for nearly 40 years and in places like the Arizona House, where Republicans have controlled the chamber since 1966, literally when Lyndon Johnson was in office.”
One of the top messages Forward Majority has found to be resounding in all three states they’re targeting is protecting abortion rights, Trent Armitage, the group’s campaigns director said at a briefing. But, with less than two weeks until Election Day, Armitage says they’ve also honed in on hyperlocal issues that resonate with voters.
In Michigan, Armitage said, those local issues include improving water quality and increasing funding to schools. In Pennsylvania, local issues include public education, election denialism among some candidates and property taxes. And in Arizona, local issues that Democrats are focusing on also include education and election deniers.