Nov 8, 2023
One Issue Helped Dems Secure BIG Electoral Wins Around The U.S.
Protecting reproductive rights was on the minds of voters during a huge 2023 election night for Democrats.
- 14 minutes
There was no red wave in 22 and in 23,
like the bottom was supposed
to have fallen out for Democrats.
And a massive night they won
in the state of Kentucky.
They won in coal country. In Kentucky.
[00:00:17]
They won on abortion in Ohio,
a state previously ordered ten year
old girl raped by an illegal immigrant had
to flee the state because of Ohio laws.
They were that extreme.
They crushed Republicans.
[00:00:37]
I got to say, you know Joe Scarborough.
I wish I had the same level of excitement.
I got to be honest.
It's all good news.
But there's a lot going on in the world
that's kind of keeping my mind off of the
big wins that we're talking about here.
But nonetheless, Democrats secured
some big wins in several states Kentucky,
[00:00:54]
Virginia and Ohio yesterday,
making one thing crystal clear that voters
want to protect reproductive rights,
and they like the ganja.
All right. So let's break it down.
Let's go state by state and talk about
the big wins here, starting with Kentucky,
[00:01:09]
where Democratic Governor
Andy Beshear won his reelection bid
and will be serving a second term.
All good news.
Now, if you look at other races
in Kentucky, Republicans did well.
But it is interesting to see
that Andy Beshear will be reelected, was
[00:01:26]
reelected and will serve a second term.
Now he defeated Republican Daniel Cameron,
who is the state's attorney general
and also someone who's considered
a protege of Mitch McConnell.
Definitely happy
he did not win the gubernatorial race.
[00:01:42]
Now let's move on to Virginia.
Democrats also retained control
of the state Senate,
which effectively blocks Governor Glenn
Youngkin conservative legislative agenda.
So Ohio also scored some victories.
[00:01:57]
I want to get to that, because that's
where a lot of good news comes from,
when it has to do with, like I hesitate
to say, culture war issues
when we talk about abortion, when we talk
about reproductive rights, it's really
an economic issue for people as well.
[00:02:12]
And Ohioans luckily voted
to amend their state constitution
to guarantee the right to an abortion
and other reproductive rights.
And it passed handily.
So 56.6% of the voters said, yes,
[00:02:29]
we want to protect reproductive rights.
The measure is known as issue one,
and it was widely seen
as the toughest fight so far when it comes
to abortion rights and what the supporters
have been trying to accomplish.
Now, the amendment will change
the state's constitution to include
[00:02:46]
protections for abortion access.
It will establish an individual right
to one's own reproductive
medical treatment, including on abortion,
contraception and miscarriage care.
It will take effect on December 7th,
30 days after the election.
[00:03:01]
And there are some more details
about this.
So this is really, really good news.
I'm so happy to see
that in like red state after red state.
Once you take this issue
to the voters themselves, they're like,
no, we don't want you banning abortion.
So it explicitly prohibits the state
from directly or indirectly burdening,
[00:03:21]
penalizing or prohibiting abortion before
viability, which is generally considered
to be around 23 weeks of pregnancy.
The amendment allows the state to bar
abortion after the point of viability,
except in instances where the patient's
doctor determines the procedure is needed
[00:03:39]
to protect life or health,
and the passage of this amendment
will make Ohio's fetal heartbeat bill,
which effectively would have just
banned abortion overall null and void.
So really happy to see this.
So proud of the voters in Ohio.
[00:03:57]
I'm sure that it's mostly a red state.
I'm sure that I would disagree
with a lot of the voters there
on a lot of different issues, but when it
comes to protecting reproductive rights,
it appears that we're on the same page,
and I'm really happy about that.
So with that said, the results
shouldn't be at all surprising.
[00:04:14]
In fact, various polls consistently showed
that between 55% and 58%
of Ohioans support at least
some abortion rights in the state.
And remember, other red states like
Kentucky voted to protect abortion rights
in their state as well.
[00:04:30]
So this isn't really it is a Partizan
issue, but it's not quite as Partizan
as it once was.
And I think it's because once the country
enjoyed the freedom to make decisions
about their own reproductive health,
it's really hard to take those rights away
[00:04:48]
without any backlash.
And as we saw in the midterm elections,
the Republican Party
dealt with that backlash.
The question is, will the fight
to maintain reproductive rights continue
to help Democrats in the 2024 election?
[00:05:04]
Whether we're talking about members
of Congress getting elected or reelected,
or whether we're talking about
the presidential race, can the candidate
let's assume that Biden is, in fact,
going to be the incumbent president
who runs for reelection?
Will the abortion issue help him,
despite how disastrous
[00:05:22]
his polling has been recently?
I guess we're going to wait and see.
But here are more details
about how significant the outcome
of the Ohio vote is.
So Ohio is the only state
directly voting or.
Was the only state directly voting
on abortion access this cycle.
[00:05:39]
The campaign was widely watched across
the country ahead of the 2024 presidential
election, as an indicator of how much
voters are mobilized by abortion rights,
so we'll see if they're still galvanized
on this issue by the time we hit
the 2024 presidential election.
[00:05:55]
This result continues the winning streak
of abortion rights advocates who have
pushed to bring the issue directly before
voters through constitutional amendments
and ballot measures
in the wake of the US Supreme Court
overturning Roe v Wade last year.
[00:06:11]
Since then, abortion access
has been on the ballot in seven states.
In each instance, anti-abortion rights
groups lost people like their rights.
People want to make decisions about their
own families, about their own bodies.
This isn't really rocket science.
I'm really happy to see this.
[00:06:28]
I hope that this trend continues.
Kentucky, another red state just really
want to reiterate, happens to be another
one where voters cast their ballots
in order to maintain reproductive rights.
Now let's pivot to weed my favorite topic
and my favorite plant in the world.
[00:06:44]
So Ohioans also voted
in favor of issue two.
Now, issue two would legalize
the use of recreational marijuana.
So you wouldn't even need to pretend
like you have some ailment
that you need the flower for.
The vote makes Ohio the 24th state
[00:07:01]
in the US to legalize adult use marijuana,
furthering a trend
of establishing legal markets
in some of these conservative states.
So with that said, let's actually
now move on to what this means,
what the legalization of marijuana means,
because there are going to be
[00:07:18]
some restrictions, there are going to be
some regulations involved.
The new law does allow adults over 21
to possess up to 2.5oz of marijuana,
and grow up to six plants.
It's a lot of plants, man.
It's a lot of work.
I mean, I've never grown pot myself,
but I've seen others grow it
[00:07:34]
and it just seems like a lot of work.
But anyway, if you want to grow six plants
in the state of Ohio, you can.
The measure creates a division
of cannabis control, which is
responsible for setting up and regulating
the adult use cannabis market.
The regulations also give existing
medical operators first dibs
[00:07:52]
on the adult use market, but also allows
licensing additional operators
depending depending on market needs.
Now, cannabis will be taxed,
which is also good for the economy.
In Ohio, the tax will be about 10%,
and an Ohio State University report
[00:08:09]
estimates that the legal marijuana
will actually generate about $300 million
a year in revenue for the state,
and with a population of 11.8 million,
Ohio will become the fourth largest state
with a recreational marijuana market.
[00:08:24]
So this will also put pressure
on neighboring states to maybe reconsider
their restrictive laws on marijuana.
And that includes Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana.
There are some efforts
to pursue legalization of pot
in those states as well.
[00:08:40]
And that's good news.
I just at this point, I mean, especially
when you compare marijuana to something
like alcohol, there's really no reason why
it shouldn't be legalized and regulated.
So the passage of these two issues in Ohio
obviously didn't sit well
with some Republicans.
[00:08:56]
There were some, like former
Pennsylvania Senator Rick Scott.
Rick Santorum, who I am shocked
is still around, but he is.
And he made excuses
for the Republican losses here.
Let's hear what he had to say.
Senator, you know, you look at these.
Issues
that are driving the left out to vote.
[00:09:13]
You would think the economy,
crime, illegal immigration, those would be
some of the issues driving people out.
When you look at so many who are
unsatisfied with the direction
the country is headed in,
but apparently that's not it.
Remember this, these elections,
off year elections, odd number elections
[00:09:28]
are very low turnout elections.
They are base elections.
And the Democrats have traditionally,
number one, outspent us not just
in odd number year elections,
but generally speaking, number one.
And number two,
their base is more ginned up to go
[00:09:44]
out and vote generally than Republicans.
And we've seen this now
for the last several years.
And so a base election
they Democrats outspend.
And you put very sexy things
like abortion and marijuana on the ballot.
And a lot of young people
come out and vote.
[00:10:00]
And it was a it was a secret sauce
for disaster in Ohio.
I don't know what they were thinking,
but that's why I thank goodness
that most of the states in this country
don't allow you to put everything
on the ballot, because pure democracies
are not the way to run a country.
[00:10:16]
- So. Right.
- That was definitely the issue in Ohio.
You know, Ohio notoriously known for their
gigantic, you know, lefty population,
just overwhelming, overpowering
Republican voters in the state.
By the way, the excuse that he made
there really does cut both ways.
[00:10:34]
Right.
Because he's arguing, well, the abortion
issue galvanized Democratic voters.
Okay.
Then that means that the abortion issue
did not galvanize Republican voters.
So I guess Republicans really
don't care about restricting abortion
[00:10:50]
as much as Republican lawmakers
would have you believe.
So there is one other video I want to
share with you all, and this one features
Sean Hannity, who seemingly conceded
to the abortion issue while talking
with a pretty bummed out Kayleigh McEnany.
Let's watch.
[00:11:06]
One other point I would just make,
because on the issue of abortion
in Ohio tonight, we continue the losing
streak in the pro-life movement.
Every ballot initiative has been lost.
Post Dobbs
for the pro-life movement as a party.
Sean, we must we must not
just be a pro baby party.
[00:11:24]
That's a great thing.
We must be a pro mother party.
We need a national strategy.
And I talked to Mike Johnson about this.
We'll air that tomorrow on outnumbered.
There's legislation we must put forward
as a party to support women,
and it's out there.
Senator Rubio's laid it out, but we've got
to get Trump behind it, the speaker
[00:11:41]
of the House behind it and have a national
strategy to help vulnerable women,
because the results of next year's
election could be determined by that.
If we're really going
to be honest about this.
And I consider myself pro-life,
but I understand
that's not where the country is.
I would say first trimester or Dobbs 15
weeks seems to be where the country is.
[00:12:02]
Kayleigh, I want to stay with you
on this issue.
And and these issues will
be decided by the States.
I actually think Hannity was fine there.
No problem with what Hannity said.
Let's go back to Kayleigh McEnany, though,
because we need to pass legislation
[00:12:19]
to support women
like the vaguest statement of all time.
What does that mean?
What is the legislation?
How exactly are women vulnerable, and
how exactly do you want to protect them?
Right.
There's no details
because obviously, historically,
the Republican Party has not really
offered up anything to help support.
[00:12:38]
I mean, yeah, to help support women.
But forget women for a second.
Let's just talk about help support
families, families altogether to make it
easier for people to start a family.
How many people
would want to start a family
would feel more comfortable doing so?
[00:12:53]
If we had adequate childcare in America,
we do not have adequate childcare,
and we live in an economy
where you need both parents to work
in order to make ends meet.
I mean, there's definitely policies
that could be championed
[00:13:09]
by the Republican Party that would
in fact, be very appealing to voters,
including Democratic voters.
Let's keep it real.
Some people might even vote
across the aisle
if they were real about these proposals.
But the thing is,
they're never real about these proposals.
Just like every mass shooting
and the aftermath of every mass shooting,
[00:13:28]
every Republican in Congress
will line up one by one
to talk about how we need to do something
about mental health care in America.
It's a mental health crisis.
That's why these shootings are happening.
And then when push comes to shove,
when they have the opportunity
to vote on legislation that would allocate
the resources necessary for mental health
[00:13:46]
care in the country, they all vote no.
Last time they had an opportunity to vote
on legislation just like that, only one
Republican in the House voted in favor.
So look, Kaylee, we're not stupid.
You can't just say like, oh,
we support women and then do nothing
[00:14:02]
or provide zero details
about how exactly you intend to do that.
So look, I think the proof
is in the pudding.
Okay.
Take a look at what has been offered up
by Republican lawmakers to improve
the lives of women and families,
and then take a look at what Democrats
[00:14:20]
have at least paid lip service to, even if
they don't fight aggressively for it.
Both parties kind of suck on this issue.
I'm not going to lie, when it comes to the
issue of maintaining reproductive rights,
obviously Democrats are better,
but on the issue of actually fighting
on behalf of families to make it easier
to establish a family, to make people
[00:14:38]
economically whole, to feel comfortable
starting a family, I think both parties
have kind of failed, but at least for now,
the American people have spoken.
They want to be able to make decisions
about when they have kids,
how they have kids, and they don't want
the federal government getting in the way
[00:14:54]
or state government getting in the way.
Hey, thanks for watching the video.
We really appreciate it, guys, and we
appreciate it if you become members,
because that allows us to be independent,
honest, progressive, all the things
that you don't get from corporate media
and all of that is because of you guys.
Hit the join button below
and become one of us.
[00:15:09]
Become a young Turk.
Now Playing (Clips)
Episode
Podcast
The Young Turks
- 13 minutes
- 10 minutes
- 14 minutes
- 13 minutes
- 11 minutes