Progressives on Tuesday night lauded Ohio after Buckeye State voters decisively rejected an effort to raise the threshold for amending the state’s constitution ahead of a November referendum that would guarantee reproductive rights in the state’s constitution.
Ohio Issue 1 would have raised the threshold for passing constitutional amendments from a simple majority (50 percent plus 1) to 60 percent.
“Ohio Issue 1 defeated!” legal scholar Laurence Tribe wrote on his social media account. “The pro-democracy forces won!!
“Partly because the anti-democracy position was joined at the hip with Dobbs and misogyny. Reproductive freedom is driving self-government. Women’s rights are human rights. Liberty is indivisible.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on her social media account: “This HELL NO vote is win for liberty!”
She added: “The GOP ignored warnings signs as polls showed nearly 60% of voters were against the measure and nearly 60% support abortion access.”
“The GOP loses when they go after democracy and women’s right, but they keep (expletive) around and finding out.”
Actor and political activist George Takei in a social media post called the election result a “political earthquake.”
“Ohio is creating a political earthquake today felt across the nation,” he wrote. “GOP: Your extremism and anti-democratic scheming are going down to crushing defeat. And it’s going to get worse for you from here.”
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Mary Trump, the former president’s outspoken niece, wrote “Thank you, Ohio. Democracy lives to fight another day. ❤️”
A spokesperson for a group opposing Issue 1 called the measure a “deceptive power grab” aimed at diminishing the power of the state’s voters, The Associated Press reports.
“Tonight is a major victory for democracy in Ohio,” One Person One Vote’s Dennis Willard said at a watch party, according to the report.
“The majority still rules in Ohio.”
