🗞️Blue wave, data centers, criminal justice and more

By now, you’ve heard that a blue wave surged through the United States on Election Day. Voters elected Democrats up and down the ballot, from congressional halls to governor’s mansions and state legislatures. So what’s on the agenda?

Democratic lawmakers say they’re focused on pocketbook issues that drove voters to the polls. Democrats with supermajorities in statehouses are also eyeing reproductive rights protections and minimum wage raises.

On ballot measures across the country, voters rejected data centers and favored criminal penalties but opposed marijuana restrictions.

Abortion access initiatives prevailed in all but one state, while Americans mostly rejected tax overhauls. In four states, voters restricted transgender athletes’ participation in sports.

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The blue wave that swept across Tuesday’s midterm election will deliver Democrats new power over state government, giving them the opportunity to advance long-sought policy changes. Democratic lawmakers from multiple states pledged to use their new statehouse power to attack rising prices, protect reproductive rights, pass new gun safety measures and grow the housing supply. The changed landscape also gives state Democratic leaders more power to oppose the agenda of President Donald Trump, including his immigration enforcement efforts.

In local elections across the country, Americans voted overwhelmingly to restrict the buildout of data centers in their communities. Fourty-four ballot measures to restrict data centers were passed by voters and two were leading in ongoing vote counts as of Friday. The measures included outright prohibitions, temporary moratoriums, limitations on energy use, mandating voter approval before construction and advisory measures urging local officials to restrict data centers.

Millions of voters in 11 states approved tougher criminal penalties and more bail restrictions in Tuesday’s midterm elections, while rejecting efforts to roll back marijuana legalization and expand cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The results reflected a mixed approach to criminal justice policy — with voters supporting harsher penalties for certain drug and human trafficking offenses and greater authority for judges to deny bail, even as they resisted other changes to state laws.

Nationwide results for abortion ballot initiatives largely favored protecting access to abortion and other reproductive care, with the exception of Idaho, where a measure that would have restored access to abortion was soundly defeated. Missouri voters struck down an amendment that would have reinstated an abortion ban. Other abortion-related measures were on the ballot in Nevada and Virginia, where voters passed constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion.

Despite the blue wave that swept the nation on Tuesday, voters were more cautious about making sweeping changes to their taxes. Most states with tax policy on the ballot saw voters reject large-scale change, though some passed smaller changes or reined in officials’ ability to make changes. One of the biggest examples, California’s much-discussed billionaire wealth tax, failed. However, voters in Florida overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that will make one of the most significant alterations to their property taxes in decades.

Voters in four states — Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska and Washington — passed measures to restrict transgender athletes’ participation in sports, a key policy focus of the Trump administration.

Colorado, Nebraska and Washington’s measures were ballot initiatives, while Arizona reached the ballot by way of the legislature.

Although there were sweeping Democratic wins in Republican strongholds Tuesday, GOP-backed proposals are winning over voters in various parts of the country.

Arizona’s initiative expands existing restrictions on transgender athletes to include private athletic associations and prohibits schools and athletic organizations from allowing individuals to use bathrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces designated for a sex different from the one recorded on their original birth certificate.

Colorado’s measure would require school athletic teams from elementary school through college to be designated for male, female or coeducational participation and require students to compete according to their biological sex. Nebraska’s measure cements language in the state constitution to prohibit male students from participating on girls’ and women’s teams.

Washington’s initiative will prohibit transgender girls from competing in girls’ K-12 sports and require healthcare documentation verifying sex eligibility for students seeking to participate on female teams. The state interscholastic athletics association reported knowing of only about 10 transgender athletes participating statewide each year.