Another Red State Goes Pink: Signature Gathering Success in MO

It looks like abortion will be on the ballot in November

It was the pink balloon that got my attention. A solitary mauve mylar star, slightly battered and floating in the breeze outside the door of Left Bank Books, a beloved independent bookstore in St. Louis’s Central West End neighborhood.

It smelled like rain, but that didn’t discourage my 11-year-old from wanting ice cream. One of his favorite parlors is around the corner from Left Bank Books, which brought us to the neighborhood – and the balloon.

“What’s the star…?” My voice trailed off as my eyes followed the balloon string down, down…

And that’s when I saw the bright pink shirts, the bright pink signs, the bright pink smiles.

Standing at a card table, high-fiving and chatting excitedly with passersby, were representatives of Planned Parenthood.

And then the balloon and the celebration made sense.

Because over the last 90 days, abortion rights advocates have been gathering signatures to put abortion on the ballot in Missouri. That wildly truncated timeframe was part of the Republican effort to keep the issue as far away from voters as possible. (That effort to delay and therefore deny Missourians their say was helpfully detailed on video here.)

To succeed, advocates had to secure signatures from 8% of registered voters from 6 of Missouri’s 8 congressional districts. That’s around 180k signatures in total, distributed around the state.

They had to do all of this in just three months’ time – again, because of the concerted efforts of anti-choice activists working in collusion with Republican state officials. That’s a Herculean effort, even under the best-funded and most positive of scenarios.

Late last week, reproductive rights advocates announced the results…

And they had gathered a whopping 380,000 signatures! (Cue the confetti!)

Image from Missourians for Constitutional Freedom @Missourians4CF

On its own, gathering more than double the number of signatures necessary to get reproductive freedom on the ballot in a red state like Missouri is more than cause for celebration. It’s a huge, massive victory.

But, right there in the middle of their email announcing the signature gathering total was a little tidbit that I think is almost as important as the total signatures gathered.

Friend, they had estimated that volunteers would gather 25,000 signatures. They said they thought that was a pretty generous estimate, actually.

They were off… by a lot.

Instead, volunteers brought in 140,000 signatures – over five times what they expected.

NCJWSTL alone collected 15k signatures. Image from NCJWSTL’s Twitter @NCJWSTL

Missouri is not a purple state, and I’m not pretending that it is. We have a Republican supermajority; we cannot flip the state legislature in one cycle. We cannot even break the supermajority in one cycle. Even if we did, we have Republicans in every statewide office, from Governor to Auditor. We have two Republican U.S. Senators.

We are gerrymandered into our neat little corners of blue and red, with a handful of carefully constructed purple districts where most of the time and energy and money – on both sides – are spent.

I say that because it’s important to understand that – generally speaking – national groups and organizations don’t spend time or resources in this state that birthed both Josh Hawley and Rush Limbaugh. We’re not a “presidential battleground” like Michigan or Wisconsin that – even with their challenges – at least benefit from the infrastructure that is built up every four years. We don’t have a “flippable” state legislature, so we’re not on the list of target states for organizations that focus down ballot. We don’t even have a competitive U.S. Senate seat.

We know we’re on our own. It’s been that way for a while.

For cycles – at least since Claire McCaskill lost her U.S. Senate seat in 2018 – we’ve been limping along, without the kind of investment that would help us make progress – or at least stop the bleeding. That’s especially true in the rural parts of the state where Democratic infrastructure has atrophied and admitting you’re a Democrat can lose you your job. Frankly, the lack of outside resources to help red state Democrats is why I’ve spent the better part of the last 7 years building Every State Blue communities that crowdsource for Democratic nominees with the fewest resources in Missouri (and Ohio, and now Tennessee and Texas).

Can you see, now, why this accomplishment is all the more glorious?

Can you see why unpaid, homegrown volunteers gathering 140,000 signatures in every corner of a state that’s not had significant investment from Democrats in years – in the span of just three months – is positively jaw-dropping?

Because Democrats in Missouri are chronically underresourced, we are also chronically underestimated. Both by our opponents... and by ourselves. But the signature gathering results prove it: We’ve got muscle and motivation.

Of course, it’s not over until it’s over. Missouri Republicans will be working hard to throw out as many signatures as they can. They’ll be working hard in the coming weeks to do so, and they’ve got precedent. In 2022, Legal Missouri – the petition to legalize marijuana in Missouri – turned in almost the same number of signatures (379,336) after 6 months of signature gathering.

But even with that 200,000 signature cushion, it nearly didn’t make the ballot because it was 1,131 signatures short in the 6th Congressional District and 1,144 signatures short in the 7th. (That anti-democratic requirement to get signatures from 8% of the registered voters in 6 of 8 congressional districts has teeth, doesn’t it?) The Legal Missouri campaign asked the Secretary of State to review some of the challenged signatures, and – to everyone’s surprise – the Republican SOS not only did so, but it resolved enough challenges for the amendment to make the ballot.

We already know that won’t happen here, with a Secretary of State that’s been actively working to keep choice off the ballot in November.

That means any challenges will be made in and resolved by the courts, and will soak up more resources as the clock ticks down to Election 2024.

Anyway, that’s the next fight, so stick a pin in it. We know that battle is just over the horizon, and we know they won’t play fair.

But for now, for a few sweet moments over a weekend in May, we can drink in this victory and celebrate a much-deserved win.

That’s what I was thinking, as I stood outside the ice cream parlor, waiting for my son to emerge with his ridiculously tall ice cream cone. I couldn’t help but feel the energy of the women who had just passed by that Planned Parenthood table on the streetcorner.

I could hear snippits of their conversations, punctuated with laughter and a brightness that cut through the rain that was starting to fall.

“My dad’s girlfriend had him sign… Oh yeah, she’s awesome…”

“…thank God they got enough – I was so worried!…”

“Finally! … doing something … can’t believe all of this … November”

I just smiled.

I think we’re going to be okay, friend. I really do.

Let’s get to work.

Small Deeds to Do for May 7, 2024

Here’s the part where – if you are so inclined – we roll up our sleeves and engage in what I like to call Action Therapy. Each Tuesday I share a Small Thing to Read, a Small Event to Attend, and a Small Call to Make. You can tuck these actions into your week with ease – and know that you’re doing something today to make tomorrow better.

Small Thing to Read

Two (well, really three) things to read this week.

No doubt you’ve already come across, and perhaps already read, Time’s extensive interview with Donald Trump. (You can find it here: https://time.com/6972021/donald-trump-2024-election-interview/). If you have not, it is lengthy but is truly worth your time. Time also released the full transcripts of the conversation here: https://time.com/6972022/donald-trump-transcript-2024-election/. Again – I know it’s a lot, but it’s worth your time.

Here’s why: especially as we get closer to the election, we’ll all have friends, family members, colleagues or random folks we encounter through our daily lives who simply cannot believe that Trump is planning to do any of the things he is truly planning to do. This interview and transcript is easy to bookmark on your computer, so that if and when that happens, you will have a source ready to reference.

To make up for sharing two really long “small things to read,” here is truly a small (as in “short”) thing to read – but it’s also excellent. Robert Reich has that knack for being able to explain complicated economic concepts in easy-to-understand terms. Here, in “What to say to a Republican who complains about the federal debt,” he tackles another campaign issue that we need to be ready to address. As Reich points out, “(1) the debt has grown mainly because of Republican tax cuts, (2) those cuts have mostly benefited the rich, (3) the rich are now the major recipients of interest payments on that debt, (4) and those interest payments are crowding out spending on child care, elder care, affordable housing, better schools, paid family leave, and everything Americans need.” This is a very quick read!

What to say to a Republican who complains about the federal debt.

Small Event to Attend

Join Big Tent on Wednesday at 7pm ET:

This Wednesday, May 8th, BigTent is will be joined by PBS senior correspondent, Judy Woodruff, and The Bulwark Founder, Sarah Longwell to discuss American polarization. “Judy will highlight her findings from her PBS show, America at a Crossroads, while Sarah will share insights from her unique focus groups, shedding light on public opinion and what issues are shaping political dialogue.”

Register HERE.

Here’s what Big Tent has to say about the speakers (from the event description):

“Judy Woodruff  is the Senior Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour after serving for 11 years as its Anchor and Managing Editor. She has covered politics and other news for over four decades at CNN, NBC, and PBS. In 2023 and 2024, she is undertaking a reporting project, America at a Crossroads, to better understand the country’s political divide.

“Sarah Longwell is a Republican political strategist and publisher of The Bulwark. She is also host of the Bulwark podcast The Focus Group, which presents the broad takeaways from hundreds of hours of voter opinion focus groups across both the country and the political spectrum.American social media platforms engage in ongoing, unregulated attempts to manipulate kids for profit, which have led to severe mental health problems, disruption in classrooms, and even suicide. Children are also at the center of extremist attempts to limit access to libraries, books, and inclusive public education. On this call, we’ll have two special guests to break down the why, the how, and what we can do about it: Dalia Hashad is the strategist and director of the Initiative for Online Safety at ParentsTogether -- the nation’s largest parents’ advocacy group, and Betsy Gomez is a program officer with the American Library Association’s Unite Against Book Bans Campaign (UABB). “

Small Call to Make (H/T to good friend Sue Rogan of Rogan’s List for this one!)

EXTEND THE AFFORDABLE CONNECTIVITY PROGRAM NOW

An initiative much needed and valued by 23 million Americans, half of whom are our military families, has not been renewed. The Affordable Connectivity Program helps low-income and disabled people be able to afford the Internet. These days the Internet almost serves as a utility, crucial for access to education, health, banking, and for many, their very jobs. The loss of this program will only deepen the digital divide. This program helps level the playing field, and a recent economics working paper estimated that for every dollar spent on the ACP, the nation’s GDP increases by $3.89. This should be a bipartisan effort. There is open legislation in both the House and the Senate: The Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act of 2024 (H.R.6929) and (S.3565). Let’s let our legislators know we want them to get these bills passed.

Thanks for reading, friend – I’m glad to see you here! If you love what I do and you want to support it, consider becoming a paid subscriber. It means a lot!