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. 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