With Republicans holding a record level of control in Congress, there will be a greater push from the left in the form of ballot measures on gun control, raising the minimum wage, and environmental protection, a researcher told The Hill's Reid Wilson.
"As more and more states are controlled by Republicans, you see more of these progressive measures getting on the ballot through initiatives," Josh Altic, who tracks ballot measures for the nonpartisan Lucy Burns Institute, told The Hill.
Liberals are taking an "if you can't beat them, join them" approach, using the conservative strategy that was popular when the left controlled Congress.
"There were a lot of conservative measures maybe 15, 20 years ago," Altic added. "The conservative movement was using these to enact tax restrictions, taxpayer protections, term limits. What we've seen is a lot more progressive issues coming up on the ballots."
Republicans hold 68 of the 98 partisan legislative chambers, but even a left-controlled state such as California will turn to the ballot to expedite the progressive agenda with 17 items —including raising taxes on the wealthy and cigarettes, and abolishing the death penalty — The Hill reported.
"If the legislature won't act on your issue and you're in a state that has the initiative process, then put it on the ballot," David Kimball, who studies ballot trends at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, told The Hill.
The lack of movement in the Republican-controlled Congress during the Obama administration has forced the left to take the battle to the ballot box.
"At federal and state levels, for everyday people, the legislative gridlock, nothing is happening in our government that people feel like is progress," Justine Sarver of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center told The Hill. "People are fed up with the level of corporate power that they're seeing in their government and their representation."
To combat the progressive push to ballot measures, some states have moved to make that practice tougher, like Michigan, The Hill reported.
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