SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Republicans have controlled most state legislatures for a very long time. That will change next year after a Democratic wave election flip governors offices, state assemblies and state Senates. In some states, that could lead to a wave of changes on issues like abortion rights, healthcare, taxes or the minimum wage. We're going to focus for the next few minutes on two major swing states that did a whole lot of shifting last week, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Carmen Russell-Sluchansky is with member station WHYY, and Sarah Kallis is with Georgia Public Broadcasting. Hi to both of you.
SARAH KALLIS, BYLINE: Hi.
CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
DETROW: Carmen, I'm going to start with you. I covered the state capital in Harrisburg for a long time. I thought it was never humanly possible that Democrats would control the state Senate, but that changed last week.
RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Indeed. So then you know Republicans have held a majority in the state Senate here for decades. And most recently, that's - they've been able to stop Governor Josh Shapiro from implementing a lot of his first term agenda. But now, Democrats hold all the levers of power, so they're feeling pretty confident they can make some of them happen pretty quickly in the new term.
The governor said that a $15-an-hour minimum wage is at the top of that list. Democrats also want to legalize recreational marijuana and reduce restrictions to reproductive health access. And they also want to expand public transit funding, which is really important to people here in Philadelphia. Shapiro has said he hopes to keep Republicans engaged in the process, and Republicans I've talked to have said that they're willing to work with Democrats but oppose some things like new taxes, for example.
DETROW: All right, let's turn to Georgia now, 'cause, Sarah, even though Georgia had been competitive on the presidential level in the last few cycles, Republicans had such a big majority in the legislature and the governor's office, and this election changed that.
KALLIS: Absolutely. So like you said, Georgia currently has a Republican trifecta, but come January, we're going to have a Democratic governor and a Democratic House of Representatives. The Republicans are, of course, still going to control the state Senate. And I'm not really surprised to see that sort of shift. Many voters at the polls told me that they wanted something different than what we have now. And Republicans here seem to have really paid the price for an anti-incumbent mood. I talked to one voter, Morgan Williams from Atlanta, at the polls, and here's what he had to say.
MORGAN WILLIAMS: It's time for change. It's definitely time for change. Gas prices are crazy. Gas prices are crazy, and groceries are crazy. Prices just are up. It's just - it's too much.
KALLIS: And full Medicaid expansion may be an early priority for Democrats here, and that would provide more low-income Georgians access to healthcare. You know, we could also see an effort to reverse the state's six-week abortion ban that was passed under Republican government, but the Republican Senate hasn't indicated that they're willing to take another look at that, and that would be needed in order for it to pass.
DETROW: Let's go even deeper in state government, Sarah, because it's not just the governor's office that Democrats won. They also won a lot of statewide offices - positions like attorney general, secretary of state. We spent a lot of time focusing on the secretary of state of Georgia over the past decade. Tell me what some of these changes could mean.
KALLIS: Yeah, absolutely. So all of our constitutional officers have flipped from Republican to Democrat, and it's also worth noting that most of these positions were held by white Republican men. And this year, eight Black women were elected to statewide office and three white men. So it's definitely a historic year. And then, of course, Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms will also be the first Black female governor in the country.
You know, speaking specifically about some of those statewide offices, Penny Brown Reynolds, who will be the secretary of state, could influence voting in election rules next cycle, and she said that she wants to prevent voter suppression. And she's supportive of mail-in ballots, which Georgia does have now, but that's faced criticism from the president. And we've seen Democrats talk about scaling back new data center construction on the campaign trail, and we could see some of the efforts to rein in data centers. Now, that's been brought up in the legislature before, but a new governor could help put them over the top.
DETROW: Carmen, I'm going to go back to you. As much as I enjoy talking about state government in Pennsylvania, there are other states, too, and let's talk about them, because a whole lot of states flipped.
RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Yeah. Well, as you know, Democrats made gains just about everywhere. And now there are five more states where Democrats have control of the executive and state legislatures in addition to Pennsylvania. Those are in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and in Nevada, where they won the governor's office and already had a Democratic legislature. So overall, going into midterms, Republicans controlled 10 more legislatures than Democrats did. Now, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, that's flipped, and Democrats control a handful more than Republicans do.
DETROW: That is Carmen Russell-Sluchansky in Philadelphia and Sarah Kallis in Atlanta. Thanks to both of you.
RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Thank you.
KALLIS: Thank you.
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