This Election's Surprising Bright Spot for Progressives Is a Very Big Deal

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

60% : This shifting dynamic is perhaps most evident in North Carolina, a swing state that Trump carried by about 3 points.
59% : On Election Day, Bolden and Thomas each won by more than 20 points, with backing from outside groups, including Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
57% : Left-leaning judges pulled off wins in states where Trump won an even bigger margin.
55% : Abortion surely played a role: State courts have immense leeway to expand or curtail reproductive rights in a post-Roe v. Wade world, and liberal judges have perfected the art of running on abortion.
52% : A similar strategy in another battleground, Michigan, helped progressives grow their majority on the state Supreme Court this year even as Trump carried the state.
49% : By doing so, they may have gained an edge among the Democratic Party's current coalition of educated, high-propensity voters, who will take part in down-ballot races that many Trump supporters seem to ignore -- apparently even when Trump is on the ticket.
48% : Abortion surely helped to activate voters in a post-Roe landscape where state Supreme Courts have the final word on reproductive rights.
45% : Running as a champion of women's right to bodily autonomy doesn't only work in purple states: It also paid off in Montana, which Trump carried by about 20 points.
41% : Sullivan, by contrast, served as a public defender, and ran as an outsider and a populist with an interest in criminal justice reform.
37% : It certainly helped that many North Carolinians cast their vote for Trump but skipped the judicial race.
36% : And the left probably benefited from "bullet voters" -- those who showed up to support Trump then ignored the other races.
24% : Trump may entrench a conservative majority in the federal judiciary for generations.

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