The post-midterm momentum that Democrats continued with important victories in three Pennsylvania special elections last week is significant both for Pennsylvanians and for the country. Democrats won three state legislative seats, giving them a one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the first time in a decade.
This is much more than a partisan victory in one middle-sized state. Here are five reasons it matters.
Protecting the 2024 presidential election
These results have circumvented a potential hazard for 2024 in a key battleground state. Currently pending in the United States Supreme Court is Moore v. Harper, a case whose most dangerous potential outcome would empower state legislatures to steal elections from a rival party's presidential winner by ignoring the people's vote. If that worst-case scenario occurs, the danger will exist in swing states such as Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, where Republicans control both houses. But that's no longer the case in Pennsylvania.
Forecasting 2024's state elections
In other states, the 2022 midterms finally began to reverse the direction of 2010's major Republican pickups in state legislatures across the country. In addition to adding outright control in the legislature of a 24th state, Republicans cut in half the number of Democrat-controlled state legislatures, from 14 to seven.
In 2022's modest reversal. Democrats won back full control of Michigan's state House and Senate, control they also gained in Minnesota by retaking the state Senate. To see what that means to voters, note that Minnesota's Democracy for the People Act (SF3/HF3), an omnibus voting rights bill, is now moving forward in both houses.
The midterms also raised the possibility that Democrats could take majority control in Pennsylvania, which became reality last Tuesday. It will take serious organizing for Democrats to turn more statehouses across the nation their way in 2024. Doing so is vital to protecting each of the rights discussed below.
Protecting women's reproductive rights
Despite the previous Pennsylvania Republican legislature's best efforts, abortion currently remains legal in the state through the second trimester of pregnancy. In 2021 and 2022, GOP legislators introduced at least seven separate bills aimed at eroding or restricting women's reproductive rights.
Such bills will go nowhere beyond the state's Republican-majority Senate chambers now.
That is vital to Pennsylvanians, and also important to women in neighboring Ohio and West Virginia, who may travel to Pennsylvania for an abortion if needed. West Virginia bans abortions after eight weeks and Ohio does so after six weeks. In Ohio's case, that even includes cases of rape or incest.
It matters that the Pennsylvania legislature will not join those states, even if newly elected Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro would have vetoed any such law crossing his desk. Every state legislature that continues to protect reproductive rights shows citizens in other states the importance of electing representatives who reflect the will of the people. And every legislative abortion ban avoided is one less traumatic injury to reproductive rights at a time when they most need uplifting.
The same applies to citizens' right to vote and to gun safety.
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Protecting voting rights
Just last month, Pennsylvania Senate Republicans introduced SB 1, a typical voter ID law. As a University of California, San Diego, study has shown, such laws disparately affect citizens of color and "skew democracy in favor of whites and those on the political right."
Tuesday's elections means that SB1 has no prospect of adoption.
Keep in mind that in an October 2022 case, the Supreme Court vacated an appeals court decision upholding a claim that the 1964 Civil Rights Act forbade strict enforcement of Pennsylvania election law that could negate a citizens' right to vote. It's much better if such laws never make it out of the legislature.
Protecting public safety
Just last week, the hyper-conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held unconstitutional a statute that criminalized possession of a firearm by anyone subject to a restraining order relating to domestic violence.
Pennsylvania has a statute just like the federal law the Fifth Circuit just invalidated. Since that court's opinions do not govern Pennsylvania, its law remains in effect — and the new Democratic state House majority will make sure that Republicans can't repeal it.
If you doubt they would try to do exactly that if they still controlled the majority, consider that just last term, Republican legislators tried to repeal all firearm licensing laws in the Keystone State.
Simply put, it's not just the people of Pennsylvania who can breathe a sigh of relief after last Tuesday. So can people all over the country who value democracy and common sense.
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