After another string of primary victories for Joe Biden, it’s all but certain that he will be the Democratic Party nominee for President this fall. What was a competitive race not even one month ago (and if anything, Bernie Sanders had the dominant position) has completely flipped into a dominant showing from our former Vice President.
This has resulted in some trepidation among Bernie supporters, as they feel Biden won’t bring about the structural change that they believe is needed for America.
As we move to unify the Democratic Party, I believe that what’s been going on in Virginia and Nevada can reassure folks that a Biden administration with a Democratic Congress can lead the charge for progressive legislation.
As we are well aware, Governor Northam (aka, Governor Moonwalk) was in a lot of hot water one year ago when it was revealed he dressed in blackface for a Michael Jackson costume while enrolled in medical school. The voters of Virginia, particularly black voters, forgave Governor Northam and most importantly, flipped the Virginia House and Senate to Democratic control in November 2019, for the first time in decades.
Governor Northam’s history in the Virginia Senate did not lend himself to being described as a liberal or progressive. In fact, in 2009 he described himself as “conservative on fiscal issues and liberal on social issues”, and state Republicans even tried to get him to switch parties.
And yet, when you recap what Governor Northam has signed into law so far in 2020, with a fully Democratic legislature setting the agenda and passing bills, it’s clear that he is not a barrier to progressive legislation.
As recapped in this U.S. & World Report article, Virginia Democrats have passed some impressive laws in only a few months time.
An astonishingly large list of topics were covered, with high-profile legislation advancing to Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's desk almost daily. Marijuana was decriminalized, insulin prices capped, and voter ID requirements repealed.
One immediate priority of Democrats, making Virginia the critical 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was quickly dispatched in January to the delight of women's rights advocates, some of whom had worked on the issue for decades.
The Washington Post offers additional coverage.
One day past its scheduled adjournment, the legislature acted on legalizing casinos, raising the minimum wage and giving localities the power to take down Confederate monuments, along with scores of other bills that had been jammed up as time ran out the day before.
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“This is our most diverse General Assembly membership ever. . . . It actually looks like Virginia,” said House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax), the first woman and first Jew to lead the House in its 401-year history. “We had a unique opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of Virginians,” she said, citing new laws that would protect gender and racial equality and improve conditions for workers.
Here is some more information about decriminalizing marijuana.
Overall, Governor Northam signed more than 150 bills into law, with Republicans admitting the legislation is more progressive than they ever passed.
“This was a session of recognizing that there is now a significant Democratic majority that [has] more progressive political ideas than Republicans have traditionally embraced,” Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City) said.
Now, the next sentence from Mr. Norment, Jr. was that businesses would wake up and realize the mistake voters did. Well, not on our watch.
Yes, some more progressive measures did not pass, such as a full legalization of recreational marijuana, as well as pulling back from sweeping gun safety laws. And as we saw yesterday, I’m confident that Joe Biden will expend more political capital on gun safety laws than Governor Northam was willing to. But overall, Virginia Democrats did not let perfect be the enemy of good, and they still passed a lot of meaningful legislation that will benefit working and middle class families. Governor Northam’s own “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” philosophy didn’t restrict the fast-moving Democratic legislature from doing the peoples’ work.
One year earlier out west in Nevada, Democrats also won back the Governor’s mansion and retained full control of the legislature with robust majorities, putting Democrats in the driver’s seat to pass progressive laws.
In a separate U.S. News & World Report article, the progressive legislation passed by Democrats in Nevada is recapped.
The state's 2019 legislative session marked the first time in nearly three decades that Democrats in the swing state controlled the governor's mansion and both legislative chambers. With that expanded power, they passed measures to ease some abortion rules, create a state government office to welcome immigrants and increase the state's use of renewable energy, among other initiatives.
A group called Battle Born Progress also applauded Governor Sisolak and Democrats for passing many progressive laws in the first 120 days of the 2019 session.
“We saw a number of incredible pieces of legislation pass through the Legislature this session. In 120 days, the Legislature passed background checks on all gun sales, prioritized public education, passed good clean energy and conservation policy, ensured better access and security for our electoral process, made progress on economic justice, and once and for all, took positive steps to begin to reform our criminal justice system, made healthcare and prescription drugs more affordable, just to name a few. This is a very impressive list of accomplishments.”
As with Virginia, not everything progressives wanted was passed. The minimum wage was only raised to $12 and hour, rather than $15. Governor Sisolak vetoed a bill that would have added Nevada to the National Popular Vote group. But, also as with Virginia, Nevada Democrats did not let perfect be the enemy of the good.
I recognize that primaries are battle sports, and we have to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off after the contests are over. With a philosophical divide seemingly as big as that between Biden and Sanders, it may appear tricky to bridge that gap. But I want to encourage all Democrats to envision what is possible with full Democratic control.
If Democrats win back the White House and the Senate, as well as keep the House, I believe we will move faster than we did in 2009 to pass progressive laws. It won’t be as fast as at the state level, just because a national of 50 states is far more heterogeneous than a single state, but we have two case studies of how swift we can be at passing progressive legislation. You are seeing the results in Virginia and Nevada.
We won’t get everything. But we will get meaningful reform on many things, and it will positively impact all Americans. Both Governors Northam and Sisolak are not firebrand liberals, and yet they have spearheaded a lot of meaningful progressive laws. I have full confidence that President Joe Biden would operate in the same way, and that bodes well for us… if we regain full Democratic control of Congress.
So let’s work extremely hard to make that happen.
