Bruce Rauner is just one of the Republicans forced to get wishy washy on the minimum wage this fall.
Raising the minimum wage is a potent enough issue this election cycle that Republicans have collectively put together a really impressive record of waffling on it. Current Republican candidates have walked back not just opposition to raising the minimum wage but positions like opposing the federal minimum wage as well. Timothy Noah compiles some of the journeys Republicans have made on this issue:
As recently as January, Alaska Republican challenger Dan Sullivan said, “Raising the minimum wage isn’t an answer” even as his Democratic opponent, Sen. Mark Begich, backed Obama’s proposed federal increase to $10.10. By September, though, Sullivan was telling the Wall Street Journal he would vote for the Alaska increase “because it is a state-driven initiative.” [...]
Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst has recently denied ever saying she opposed a federal minimum (the public record contradicts her), and now says only that she doesn’t want to raise it. [...]
In North Carolina, Republican state House Speaker Thom Tillis first said any minimum set an “artificial threshold” that “drives up costs.” Then he retreated to saying he thought wage minimums ought to be set not by the federal government but by each state — while refusing to say whether North Carolina’s minimum should be raised.
In Illinois, gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner has been all over the map on the issue (that's a map stretching from "eliminate or reduce the minimum wage" to "maybe possibly raise it by I'm-not-saying-how-much and only with a ton of conditions attached"). In Arkansas, meanwhile, both Rep. Tom Cotton, the Republican Senate candidate, and former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, the Republican candidate for governor, have
claimed to support that state's minimum wage ballot measure, despite records that show them to be no champions of low-wage workers.
No matter how many Republicans are walking back their minimum wage opposition, electing Democrats is the only way to actually increase the minimum.
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No wonder Republicans in close races are changing positions on this issue: raising the minimum wage is enormously popular, with even a majority of Republicans in some states supporting it. In fact, minimum wage support is
an outlier issue in some extremely red states. The key is letting voters know where Republicans really stand.