On November 7, Ohio voters approved two ballot measures: one protecting abortion rights in the state constitution, the other legalizing marijuana. The measures passed by nearly identical margins, roughly 57 percent supporting to 43 percent opposing. Ohio’s state legislature, which is nearly three-quarters Republican, has shown no support for either policy. So Ohioans decided to go around them.

In the past decade, unions and progressive groups have turned to ballot initiatives to advance popular economic and social policies that they were unable to move through state legislatures. As seen in Ohio, they’ve found that many policies regarded as unrealistically left-wing in mainstream political discussions are in fact widely popular. The ballot initiatives strategy allows activists and organizers to get around gerrymandering and appeal to people directly — most often showing that voters themselves are more progressive than their lawmakers.