The Election We Aren’t Talking About, and Could Easily Sway
Now for three things we likely didn’t learn in high school. And hold onto your hats and pearls, because you’re about to get (civically) blown away!
First: State legislatures are the hottest legislative thing around. They calls the shots on redistricting, data center regulation, how millionaires and billionaires get taxed, and who gets to have guns, abortions, free school lunch. Plus much more.
Congress is passing about 2% of bills. But state legislatures put up way higher numbers:
Vermont: 14% passed in the 2025-2026 session.
Washington State: 22.1% passed in 2025.
Montana: 54% passed in 2025.
None of these are apples to apples comparisons. State legislatures have different session lengths, come in different sizes, have different numbers of bills introduced.
But the data is still clear: state legislatures eat Congress’ lunch when it comes to legislative productivity.
Now here’s the second fact we probably didn’t learn in high school: Only 20% of people can name their state legislators.
If this is you, absolutely no shame! Remember: we don’t get taught this stuff. And if we did, that 20% stat wouldn’t be so low. So what better day than today to learn who represents you in your statehouse! Click here to find out.
Know someone who’s looking to make a different this election? Please do forward this along to them! Our democracy thanks you!
Now that we know these state legislative races are pretty important stuff, here’s the third thing it’s unlikely we learned in high school: some of these races are decided by very, very few votes.
In 2025, a state legislative race in Virginia was decided by 257 votes and another in New Jersey was decided by 193 votes.
The top of the ballot gets the most headlines and money. Some people will only vote for the U.S. Senate or House races, governor’s race, and skip the rest. That’s power we’re leaving on the table.
Remember those emails where we were supposed to share a recipe and then forward it to five friends who would forward it to five friends and by 5pm that day, 35 people in 13 different states would be baking your aunt’s mushroom lasagna for dinner.
They weren’t great emails. But for the love of democracy, why not take a few minutes to research your state legislative races. Then email five people who live nearby you, encourage them to vote in their state legislative races this fall, and ask them to forward your note to five people.
It wouldn’t take too long before that information could hit 190 folks or even 250 folks. Which could have real impact on the race.
And that one email you send could mean the difference between a legislature that believes a hungry kid should get free school lunch and one that doesn’t, a legislature that believes data centers should be regulated and one that doesn’t.
In other words, that one email could play a part in building the world we want to live in.
Did someone forward this to you? Welcome! You can subscribe below for more democracy pick-me-ups each week!