Local Races Matter, Ya’ll!

Hey everyone! This is your reminder that local and state races matter. As you head out to vote, make sure to look beyond the top of the ticket. Yes, that means doing some research, but taking the time to do our homework before voting is part of our civic duty, and these races really do have longterm ramifications.

Let me offer you a rather prurient example:

Minutes after Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, essentially ending American women’s decades-long quest for the right to vote, a young man with a red rose pinned to his lapel fled to the attic of the state capitol and camped out there until the maddening crowds downstairs dispersed. Some say he crept onto a third-floor ledge to escape an angry mob of anti-suffragist lawmakers threatening to rough him up.

The date was August 18, 1920, and the man was Harry Burn, a 24-year-old representative from East Tennessee who two years earlier had become the youngest member of the state legislature. The red rose signified his opposition to the proposed 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In previous votes Harry Burn had sided with suffrage opponents, and political leaders in his district wanted him to vote against it, but he had a letter from his mother — “Hurrah, and vote for suffrage” — in his pocket, and he unexpectedly (and hurriedly) voted Aye. That day, Harry Burn ratified women’s suffrage.

If voters in Harry Burn’s district had selected someone else—someone who would have voted in step with local political leaders—Tennessee would have rejected ratification, as a number of southern states already had.

This moment is portrayed in this music video about women’s suffrage:

While we’re not likely to see any constitutional amendments come up for ratification in the next four years, it’s worth remembering that North Carolina’s HB2, which barred trans people from public restrooms matching their gender identity and prohibited cities and counties from creating employment protections for LGBT individuals, was a state bill passed by state lawmakers. Restrictions on abortion access have also been largely a state-level affair. Efforts to reduce unions’ bargaining power (see: Scott Walker) have also been carried out largely at the state level, and individual states chose whether to opt into out of Medicaid expansion.

Local races matter. State races matter. Beyond the obvious importance of these races to state and local policies, U.S. House and Senate candidates often start out in local and state politics before working their way up. If we want quality lawmakers at the federal level, we need to vote for quality lawmakers at the state and local level.

And if you haven’t already, get out and vote tomorrow!