Last Tuesday, while the eyes of a nation were focused on “horse race” primaries (and narratives) in places like Michigan and Missouri, MAGA priorities flamed out in…places like Missouri and Kansas.
Votes on amendment referendums in the MAGA midwest are often hard to follow if you don’t actually live there. The media nationalizes discussions to such an unnerving degree that nuance is usually (okay, always) lost.
Since you know how we do things here (“we bring the nuance!” isn’t a great tagline, but here we are), we wanted to remind everyone that anti-democratic billionaires aren’t guaranteed success just because they have deep pockets and puppets to do their bidding.
Speaking of those puppets: Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe. Kehoe cooperated with his GOP supermajority in the Missouri Legislature to put not one, not two, but three Amendments in front of voters in both last week’s August primary and one set for the November general election.
After Kehoe bent the knee to Trump and cooperated with the latter’s redistricting scheme, he immediately turned his attention to three pet projects popular with the conservative right: Taxes, direct democracy, and abortion.
Kehoe’s two bills that went on Tuesday’s August primary ballot (presumably he and the goons in his party assumed lower voter turnout and, therefore, an assured victory) along with redistricting are his signature legislative achievements. Amendments Four and Five would have, respectively: made it all but impossible for voters to pass laws directly at the ballot box; and eliminated state income tax.
How did they fare? They fucking cratered. Voters didn’t bring pens to the ballot box. They brought canons.
From The Missouri Independent:
“Amendment 5, which sought to phase out Missouri’s income tax and allow lawmakers to replace the lost revenue with broader sales taxes, drew just 16.6% of the vote Tuesday — the third-lowest level of support for any constitutional amendment since Missouri adopted the initiative process in 1908.
Amendment 4, another Republican legislative priority, fared only slightly better. The proposal to require citizen-led constitutional amendments to win statewide and in all eight congressional districts received 19.7%.
Both failed in every county in Missouri.”
How about we raise a glass to that, Team Democracy?
And over in Kansas, Missouri’s literal neighbor, voters rejected an attempt by conservatives to overhaul how the state’s Supreme Court justices are selected with similarly overwhelming margins. This was and is a naked play to punish voters for rejecting another amendment that would have permanently banned legal abortion in the state (that, you may recall, was a very big deal in 2024).
From The Kansas Reflector:
“Kansas voters Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to rewrite the state constitution and elect Kansas Supreme Court justices, spiking a plan long coveted by Republicans who want more conservative rulings on issues including abortion and school funding.
About 62% of Kansans were voting “no” on the constitutional amendment with 593,695 votes counted as of 11:15 p.m.”
As for the abortion vote in Missouri, an amendment that would overturn legal abortion (a right voters overwhelmingly legalized in 2024) is slated for the November midterm.
And how’s that looking?
As of the time of this publication, the grassroots effort to oppose the ban (groups who have organized to maintain legal abortion access in Missouri; it’s not just you, it’s super fucking confusing) now has $6.5M cash on hand and includes a $1.5M donation from none other than Michael Bloomberg.
How about we don’t do the usual, “Why do people vote for progressive issues but not progressive candidates there?” discussions? There are all sorts of complex—and yes, nuanced—reasons that statewide democrats fail but votes for causes we support don’t. (A reminder that Kansas currently does have a two-term Democratic governor.)
Make no mistake that these losses sting, and they sting badly. The GOP tried to pass cowshit off to voters in one of the most conservative states (we mean Missouri) by insane margins (a state Trump won by almost 20 points) and instead of eating it, voters threw it back in their smug faces.
When the tides turn against a corrupt, kleptocratic, oligarchic dictatorship, all wins aren’t just intellectual victories. They aren’t just moral, either. They are tactical.
How much money will conservative donors be willing to invest in the upcoming November abortion vote in Missouri, knowing they’ll be trounced? With margins like that in Kansas, how will that bolster Cindy Holscher’s opportunity to replace Democratic Governor Laura Kelly in November?
Yes, voters are partisan. But they’re not dumb. And November is coming, and along with an angry electorate that is sick to death of being fed the same bullshit by the same MAGA bullshitters.
For more on Missouri, Rachel Maddow did a pretty great breakdown here.
Thank you for all you do! November is looking bluer by the day!
In solidarity,
The Find Out Team
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.