After a polarizing and exhausting election, many Americans are left with intense feelings and reactions about what happened on November 8. With much of our media and attention focused on the presidential race, a few key, historical milestones for women and working families have not been getting the recognition they deserve.
First, three minority women won Senate seats on November 8. Illinois Representative Tammy Duckworth, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, and California Attorney General Kamala Harris will join Hawaiian Senator Mazie Hirono in the Senate, quadrupling the number of women of color in the legislature. Notably, Senator-elect Masto will be the United States’ first ever Latina Senator.
Another notable and inspiring victory is the election of Ilhan Omar, who will become the state representative in District 60B in southeast Minneapolis, Minnesota. Representative-elect Omar will be the first Somali-American Muslim female legislator in the United States, and came to Minnesota after fleeing the Somali civil war and living in a Kenyan refugee camp.
In addition to these historic victories for women and minorities, important ballot measures for working families passed on November 8. In Cincinnati, Ohio, voters approved a $15 million expansion of universal preschool that will cover about 6,000 children. By passing the initiative, Cincinnati can now focus on closing the education gap for the city’s most underserved communities by offsetting child-care cost burdens (about $6,000 to $9,000 annually) that have limited parents’ work opportunities. The initiative’s success shows that voters are comfortable with a modest increase in their property tax to help working families (approximately $5 weekly on a $100,000 property).
Finally, voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington State voted to lift their minimum wage floors, which will help address the wage divide, especially for women and minority workers who tend to work lower-paying jobs. In Maine and Arizona, voters approved a $12 phrased-in hourly base wage, along paid sick days. In Flagstaff, Arizona, voters approved a measure that will have the city at a $15 hourly wage floor by 2021.