2023 Review: Top 10 Democracy Wins

Why This was Such a Historic Year in the Long Battle for Democracy

When viewed through the overly narrow lens that American politics is a simple battle over certain swing states in order to win federal offices, years like 2023 are minimized as so-called “off” years. Where little is at stake. Where you rest to gear up for the big races of 2024. Where you do little but watch as threats to democracy emerge before that big year even starts (as we have all year with the reemergence of an even more disturbing Donald Trump).

But in our NEW mindset, where we understand that we are in a battle for democracy itself—and that that battle takes place every year and everywhere—we understand that a year like 2023 is an absolutely crucial year to protect democracy. It’s a year to lift democracy. All over and at all levels. A year to build momentum.

And once we view all that’s happening through that broader democracy lens, we can see that 2023 was actually a year of real progress. In some cases, historic and stunning progress. And an extension of similar progress in 2022.

So before we consume ourselves with both the risks and opportunities of 2024 (and yes, they are huge), let’s take stock in the progress of 2023. Let’s learn from it. Build on it.

Top 10 Democracy Wins from 2023 (no particular order):

1. Ending Gerrymandering in Wisconsin: no state has endured more extremely rigged legislative districts since the disastrous 2010 election than Wisconsin. A state that, even when it votes decisively blue, has been saddled with a supermajority GOP legislature.

   

   Well, with the flipping of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April, the ferocious pushback against talk of impeaching the new Justice (the type of tactic that has worked elsewhere), and the decision by that new Court last week to strike down the current rigged maps, the days of Wisconsin legislative bodies being rigged look to be coming to an end shortly. (But don’t let up until it finally happens).

   Wisconsin now joins Michigan and Pennsylvania as states that have liberated themselves from badly gerrymandered systems. Which marks major progress in the long battle for democracy.

2. Saving Democracy and Reproductive Freedom in Ohio: make no mistake, the gerrymandered and corrupt politicians of Ohio went for broke this year to forever lock the people out of power, subverting democracy in every way they could (including through an illegal election) to try to achieve that pernicious goal. But the people, across party lines, saw through it and voted the effort down in August—preserving the right to direct democracy they have enjoyed for more than a century. This preserved the Ohio majority’s ability to protect reproductive freedom in November (which they did!) and also undertake other initiatives to reform and protect rights and democracy. (With an amendment to end gerrymandering already underway for ‘24). A loss in August would’ve devastated Ohio democracy for the rest of our lifetimes.

   

3. School Elections Everywhere: although they had different names, and appeared even better organized, far-right groups largely failed in yet another attempt to take over school boards across the country.

   

   Following these deep failures, some of these groups are now descending into chaos. But bigger picture, the lesson continues to be clear: when given the choice, Americans generally do not support a far-right and highly partisan agenda being imposed on their local schools. We must build on that going forward.

4. Virginia Victories: Perhaps the most disappointing statehouse result since 2020 was the loss of the Virginia House of Delegates in 2021. So the incredible result in November—where Democrats not only retained the Virginia Senate but flipped the House of Delegates back—was an enormous win.

   

   Campaigning with one of the Virginia victors!

   Those victories were also consistent with a series of special election legislative wins that retained new statehouse control in Pennsylvania, and got Democrats just a seat away from control in New Hampshire.

5. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Victory: It’s the kind of race, in the past, that we might have overlooked. A seat on one state’s Supreme Court—and not the swing seat. But when you realize that no court in America has been more important to democracy in recent years than Pennsylvania’s, and when the loss of the seat that was up for grabs (to an election denier, no less) would’ve risked losing the Court entirely in coming election cycles, Democrats’ success in retaining that seat in November marked an enormous win.

6. Running Everywhere: My biggest fear following November’s big wins, and entering 2024, was that we’d fall into the same trap we often do—take a break, focus only on the presidential race, and fail to recruit in the intense way it takes to run everywhere. I strongly believe that allowing countless extremists to run unopposed in state after state is at the heart of why anti-democracy extremism has been exploding in recent years. So it was a huge win for democracy to see so many states announce in the past month that they had greatly decreased the number of unopposed state legislative seats for 2024: Ohio, North Carolina (only 2 unopposed seats!), Arkansas, Texas. Hopefully more to come. This is great news for our effort to win the presidency and statewide offices in these states. And it’s great news in the long battle of bringing accountability back to these broken and rigged statehouses. This must be our new “business as usual.” Our default.

7. Laboratories of Democracy Emerge: yes, in the wrong hands, statehouses can become what my book title called them — “Laboratories of Autocracy.” But in the right hands, they can indeed be what Justice Brandeis hoped they would be—Laboratories of Democracy. And 2023 saw that play out perfectly in states where we flipped control in 2022—such as Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania—protecting rights and supporting pro-voter and pro-democracy reforms. And when states like these do this important work, it sets the stage for other states to adopt those same reforms. Keep going Blue States! And if you live in one, keep pushing those in power to do more.

8. A Big Year for Unions, Workers and Organizing: In an America where so little civic infrastructure remains that lifts every day Americans up against powerful and deep-pocketed interests, unions have an outsized role to play—not just regarding economic justice, but democracy itself. So it was great to see 2023 emerge as a year with incredibly important victories for workers—from autoworkers to UPS drivers to baristas to writers—organizing, striking when necessary, and seeing big economic wins as a result. Polls show unions as popular as they’ve been in decades, especially with younger generations.

   

9. Accountability, at Long Last: In “Saving Democracy,” I lament that the lack of accountability in the political sphere has reached a crisis level, sending a signal that politics is a rule-free world where people can get away with anything. And this provides a terrible incentive to would-be lawbreakers—Trump, members of Congress, state legislators—to just keep pushing the envelope, because the system lets them get away with it. While it took too long (for my taste) to get there, 2023 proved to be a year where needed accountability started to happen. From costly defamation suits against Fox News and Rudy Giuliani, to indictments against Trump at the state and local level, pleas by other high-level political figures involved in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, to corruption trials, indictments and convictions in Ohio for the largest bribery scandal in our state’s history, 2023 was a year where accountability emerged in crucial ways in the political space. Seeing the year end with the Colorado Supreme Court putting teeth into the disqualification clause even provided a breath of fresh air (although I still am skeptical that Trump will ultimately be disqualified from the ballot). Let’s hope 2024 continues this important trend. (Of course we have to vote crooked and lawbreaking politicians out of office—but having a rule of law that holds them accountable when they violate the law (and does do before future elections where they can try to evade accountability) is a key element in protecting our democracy).

10. Our Growing Democracy Army: The victories I list above didn’t just happen on their own. As in late 2022, most of these wins were fueled by grassroots activists caring enough that they dedicated time and resources and passion into pro-democracy battles wherever they were taking place in America—usually far away from them. These activists made phone calls, knocked on doors, rallied, wrote postcards, sent contributions, hosted candidates, you name it—for that Wisconsin win, for those Ohio wins, for the Virginia wins, to help build up support for statehouse candidates to run in 2024 in Ohio, and so on. I wrote “Laboratories of Autocracy” because I was deeply worried not enough people saw where the battle for democracy really is taking place—2023 showed that there is a fast growing group of people who know exactly where it’s taking place, and are eager to jump right in and do what it takes. And your activism is the key ingredient to all the wins I describe above, as well as to continue this momentum going into 2024.

    

    Thank you for all who worked so hard and gave so much of yourselves. It made all the difference!

Running the Table

So those are 10 BIG wins for democracy. Quite a list for what’s supposed to be an “off year,” isn’t it?

And think about it — the stakes of these battles were absolutely enormous. If the result of any of those 10 had been the opposite, it would’ve dealt a devastating blow to democracy and basic rights for millions of people, and for the entire country.

But we won them all in 2023. Indeed, looking at the biggest democracy battles of the year, the pro-democracy side ran the table. We had to, and we did.

It’s actually a remarkable feat!

And as I look back on the years 2008-2016, these are the very types of battles we too often lost. The very types of losses that put us in a deep hole when it comes to democracy in so many parts of America. And too often, we didn’t even see the damage because we weren’t sufficiently focused on all the places we needed to be.

Well, 2022 and 2023 proved to be years where that started to change.

As we take on the challenges and attempt to seize the enormous opportunities of 2024, let’s build on the energy and passion that led to such a successful 2023.

More to come…because yes, in 2024, we must run the table again!

In the comments below, let me know where you will be focusing your energized in 2024: