Democrats take legislatures in Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania

Get Out the Vote organizers also say the election victories can be directly attributed to years of planning in rural communities and among working-class voters of color, a game plan they hope will be emulated in other states as Democrats try to reclaim the state. level of power in GOP strongholds.

« Long-term organizing is important, » said Art Reyes, executive director of grassroots group We the People Michigan. “For us, we’ve been organizing steadily for the past five years, it’s really about making sure that we’re building long-term organizing capacity that doesn’t go hand in hand. It’s not about building sand castles.

Democrats flipped Michigan’s Senate with the help of electing a progressive candidate in a newly created district that includes Grand Traverse County, a rural part of the state known as the ‘cherry belt’ with a strong agricultural presence.

Democratic candidate Betsy Coffia won this district in large part through an organizing strategy that involved migrant farm workers campaigning for her on behalf of a statewide campaign to get everyone together. qualifies for a driver’s license, regardless of immigration status. Undocumented migrant workers held house parties, phone banks and community events and urged family members who could vote to turn up at the polls.

“They organized them to show up in force,” Reyes said. « We see in a community where migrant farm workers who have often been treated as invisible, they just flexed their organizing power and helped overthrow the siege that toppled the state house. »

Michigan Democrats should try to use their newfound power to bolster the reinvigorated labor movement by repealing the state’s right-to-work statute.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats are hoping the party’s success at the top of the rankings with the election of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman to the Senate will trickle down to local offices. By Wednesday afternoon, Democrats had won nine seats and the results were outstanding in a handful of races that will determine the balance of the two chambers.

Pennsylvania Democrats haven’t held a majority in either the House or the Senate since 2010, the murderous midterm cycle when Republicans swept the Statehouse races and took control of 21 chambers.

It may be days or weeks before the final results are known in Arizona. Still, early returns looked promising for Democrats. It will boil down to five districts, the most competitive of which is located in Mesa in a race that has garnered national attention.