A guide to going without four wheels, even if you don’t live in NYC.
People like me who choose to get by without a car in a place like Cleveland, where I live, or just about anywhere in the US outside a few dense coastal cities tend to get a reputation for being a bit eccentric. After all, we are the exceptions in a nation that was built around the automobile.
Adults, especially workers, who don’t drive are a rare breed in the US. About 85 percent of American workers use a car to commute daily, the vast majority of them driving alone. Only about 8 percent of US households don’t have a vehicle. For many, it’s because they can’t afford one, not because they don’t want one. People of color are less likely to have access to a car than white people, a difference that tracks with wealth disparities. Those with higher incomes who don’t have cars are more likely to live in one of a handful of major metros with robust legacy transit systems like New York, Boston, or Washington, DC.
Yet there is a small but mighty group of people who live in low-density areas and choose to be car-free. And it’s gaining a foothold (or at least fighting for one) in midsize and interior American cities. Although the US is still overwhelmingly designed around cars, younger generations are driving less than their older counterparts and seeking alternative ways of getting around. The reasons range from the altruistic to the economical. Going car-free is far better for the planet (transportation is the country’s top source of carbon emissions, with cars responsible for nearly 60 percent of those), individual health, and, because car crashes are a major cause of death in the US, public safety. Considering the immense costs of owning a car, it’s easier on the wallet, too. And with so many Americans now working from home, there’s arguably never been a better time to try it.
But ditching cars in a country that’s thoroughly dependent on them isn’t for the faint of heart. The car-free folks I spoke with had a common list of complaints: dangerous conditions for walking or biking, buses that run on unworkable schedules, or relatives who live in distant, inaccessible locations. But many say the benefits make it more than worthwhile, and even short of abandoning your car entirely, there’s a range of alternatives that allow you to significantly reduce how much you drive — an option I call “car-light,” the transportation version of a reducetarian diet. Having done it for a long time in Cleveland (my husband has a car that I occasionally use), I can attest that it might be more doable than you think. If you’re curious about making the plunge yourself, here is our advice.
You don’t have to rely on public transit (but it helps)
Many Americans might imagine that to live without a car, you need access to great public transportation — which is hard to come by outside of a few coastal cities. But while the car-light might look longingly at the kind of extensive and reliable transit system enjoyed by Hongkongers or Berliners, it’s not a prerequisite for living without a car, since most trips people make by car are relatively short. Almost half of US car rides are 3 miles or less, and the majority are four miles or less — distances that, for many nondisabled people, are eminently bikable, if not walkable.
But transit aside, the infrastructure needed for pedestrians and cyclists, like safe sidewalks and bike paths, can vary dramatically. Many people I spoke with said the most important consideration when giving up a car isn’t necessarily the city you live in, but the neighborhood you call home. Even in car-dependent regions like the Midwestern and Southern US, you can find sweet spots that function as “15-minute neighborhoods” — an urban planning term for places where daily essentials are available within a short, convenient walk.
Ashira Morris, who lives with her husband in Tallahassee, Florida (a city with an average of two cars per household), and has never owned a car, said she manages her lifestyle by keeping a relatively small radius in her everyday life. “We’ve made peace with … being creatures of our neighborhood,” she told me in a Twitter direct message. “When we decided we were going to buy a house here, [we] had a one-mile radius we were willing to live in that we knew was walkable to essentials (groceries, restaurants, bookstore) and bike-able to a lot of other aspects of our lives (friends/parents houses, swimming pool, library).”
If all that sounds daunting, keep in mind that not owning a car doesn’t mean you can never use one again. Car-sharing and rental services like Zipcar, or trips on ride-hail apps, can help you make long trips for work that aren’t accessible by light rail. These services can be a wonderful tool for making car-free living work, and they can easily be cheaper than buying and maintaining a car. The American Automobile Association estimates that ownership, insurance, maintenance, gas, and other associated expenses for a car purchased new cost Americans an average of more than $10,000 annually. Not every car-sharing service is available everywhere — Zipcar isn’t really an option where I live in Cleveland — but something can be found in most cities.
Barry Greene, who lives in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and mostly bikes or takes the bus, said he also relies on Uber and Lyft in a pinch. His wife, who does have a car, has been catching on to the benefits: “She’s like, ‘Oh, you can bike there in 20 minutes? Oh, it only cost $12 to get there?’” he said.
How e-bikes change the game for car-free living
One of the biggest advantages of going totally car-free is freeing yourself of your ongoing financial relationship with a vehicle, but no matter where you live, it’ll likely require investing in some gear. I managed without a car when my kids were young in Cleveland by ferrying them (or more accurately dragging them when they weren’t cooperative) a half-mile to day care or the doctor’s office on Micro Minis: a brand of easy-to-use, three-wheeled scooters for young children.
But among all the car-free and car-light people I talked to, by far the most common and important tool cited was the electric bike, or e-bike. E-bikes are especially well-suited for replacing car trips because they allow you to travel farther with much less effort than on a conventional bike, making long distances or hilly terrain less daunting. E-bikes can be pricey, starting in the $500 to $700 range for cheaper models and more than $2,500 for cargo e-bikes that are built for hauling kids or groceries. But even on the high end, they’re much less costly than a car.
Christian Kurpiel-Wakamiya, a single father, lives without a car outside of State College, Pennsylvania, a small college town. State College has its charms, but it isn’t Manhattan — getting to the grocery store required a 17-mile round trip. “Right when the pandemic started, I purchased an electric cargo bike, and that’s what makes this possible for me,” he said. His now-7-year-old son used to ride along on the back, but he’s become such a strong cyclist that he sometimes puts as much as 19 miles on his own bike daily.
Safety is a major concern — but to address it, we need to start getting out of our cars
Getting around by foot, bike, or scooter can enable children to have far more independence than idly sitting in a car. But in so much of the US, roads are dangerous for anyone outside a vehicle. “The most difficult part is the abrasive infrastructure around here,” said Kurpiel-Wakamiya. The two wide, high-speed roads that run through downtown State College concern him much more than his son’s ability to keep up with long rides. To make cycling in his area safer, he’s organized a “bike bus” — a group bike ride to school with his son and about a dozen other kids.
Unsafe road design may be the single biggest obstacle to car-free mobility in the US. Even in cities like New York, which has made progress on car death rates thanks to major investments in protected bike infrastructure, cyclists and pedestrians still face fatality rates many times higher than their peers in Europe. On Cleveland’s near west side, where I live, short trips by bike or foot sometimes leave me fuming. Even if you can get past the terrifying intersections and seemingly homicidal drivers, you’re likely to be greeted by a degrading trudge through an unwalkable parking lot when you arrive at your destination.
As the author of a book about the country’s growing pedestrian safety crisis, I’m not here to downplay this concern. Car supremacy is so culturally ingrained that pedestrians and cyclists are routinely blamed for being hit by cars, and drivers are rarely held legally accountable for it. Black and Native Americans, wheelchair users, and low-income people are killed by cars at disproportionately high rates. Due to Americans’ increasing preference for big cars like SUVs and pickup trucks, among other factors, pedestrian deaths have been soaring — up more than 60 percent over the last decade. And car crash deaths increased during the pandemic, both for people in and outside cars, even as miles driven fell.
“I’ll just get fatigued — not from riding long miles but from how bad the infrastructure is and how hostile drivers can be [to cyclists] sometimes,” said James Holmes, who lives without a car in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s mentally exhausting and a little depressing.”
America’s lack of progress on road safety is one reason that people are eschewing car dependence in the first place. Cyclists and car-free city dwellers have been leading voices for better road safety, and those efforts are starting to yield results. Vision Zero, a movement that aims to achieve zero car crash deaths by prioritizing the safety of people outside cars, has been adopted, at least nominally, by most major American cities. They have a long way to go to actually make a dent in the rate of roadway carnage — but having an organized constituency of people who care about safety is essential to getting there.
Car-free mobility is a mindset
We don’t have to wait for conditions to be perfect to learn to live without cars — nor should we. As a car-free veteran, I’ve come to believe that, more than any single tool or tactic, it’s helpful to think about navigating the world without a car as a skill that can be learned. I’ve ridden the bus since I was a tween, in places where the quality of service has varied widely. That’s helped me become very good at it over time (it doesn’t hurt that I have a good sense of direction and am adventurous).
Learning to navigate public transit can be intimidating; route maps can be overwhelming. If you’re used to the relative logistical security of driving — especially in the age of GPS navigation — it takes a good amount of faith to trust the system and yourself to get where you need to go. And in the US, for the most part, we don’t have great support systems to help people ease into using transit. The wayfinding tools — like the practically unreadable route maps sometimes posted at bus stops — are made for confident transit riders, not newbies.
But in my opinion, anyone with access to a transit system should give it a try. If you’re new to it, try choosing the route closest to your home, make a simple journey, and expand from there as you become more comfortable. Don’t be afraid to ask the bus driver questions. That’s what I did the first time I stepped aboard a bus alone as a kid; he told me where to transfer, and on the return trip, I was already knowledgeable enough to do it on my own.
Biking confidently alongside cars is a learned skill as well. Seeing my friends do it, especially other women, made it less daunting for me. “Stay out of the door zone,” the area alongside parked cars where people throwing open their doors can clip you, they told me. And “watch for right hooks,” or right-turning drivers who might not see you crossing a road. I learned other things mostly intuitively as I went, based on what felt safest to me, by starting on lower-traffic streets and graduating to more congested locations.
Still, not everyone wants to turn their daily commute into a game of Frogger, and these dangers are symptoms of a dysfunctional transportation system that often makes carlessness a hardship — and occasionally dangerous, too.
You also have to get used to being the commuting exception, which can sometimes mean blank stares and weird remarks. Two years ago, Sam Zilberstein, a graphic designer who lives in an outer suburb of Miami, started doing a combined bike, bus, and rail commute into the city. He loves it — fighting the north Miami traffic every day was making him miserable, and he says he’s now happier and healthier. But his co-workers can’t figure it out. “My office is right next to the metro, but no one there uses it but me,” he said. They’re “confused about my multi-modal commute … or they’re concerned about the safety of the Metrorail.”
It takes a high level of individuality (and stubbornness, perhaps) to choose this, given all the structural obstacles. During part of the year — January and February especially — it can be particularly tough for me in Cleveland. Pushing a stroller down the middle of a road because the sidewalks are impassable from snow will make anyone a little ragey. These are problems that have to be solved at societal and policy levels if we ever want car-free life to be embraced by a significant swath of Americans.
But by choosing a car-free or car-light life, you can play a part in effecting that kind of change from the bottom up, which builds pressure for better transportation policy from the top down. For many people I spoke with, not driving engenders a strong sense of pride and satisfaction, of building a better world. “I’m trying to advocate for what I believe is a better future,” Kurpiel-Wakamiya said. “I want [my son] and my daughter, too, to have a good example of tenacity … and instill in them that confidence” to make choices that might be countercultural.
As more people have explored alternative modes of transportation, cities have started recognizing that car-dependent design is bad for their residents, and have begun building better amenities for bikes and pedestrians. These are small steps, but a single piece of good infrastructure can make a world of difference: Cleveland has built a beautiful bike trail network over the past decade, for example, which has improved my quality of life dramatically. It’s gotten less lonely, too, to advocate for things like bike lanes and paths in Cleveland, as better infrastructure attracts more users.
“We’ve finally got a critical mass of people that care about living in the city without relying on cars,” said Alex Ip, a student based in Atlanta who uses the city’s passable bus and rail system. “Now the hard part is to translate that into demanding state and regional and local officials to do the work that residents want.”
At its best, local government reflects the interests of the people who live there; not having a car can push you to be a little more civically engaged — and, in turn, push your leaders to make life better for non-drivers. If you’re already the kind of person who leaves the car sitting in the driveway a few days a week, getting rid of it will compel you to make a few more difficult trips by bus or bike than you otherwise would. It’ll also involve you in a struggle that’s bigger than your own needs — to build a more accessible and balanced transportation system for everyone.
Angie Schmitt is a writer and urban planner based in Cleveland. Her book, Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America, was published in 2020 by Island Press.
Be validating and specific when extending a helping hand.
Periods of difficulty can impact anyone in life, no matter how put-together they might seem. When the inevitable happens — your friend’s sudden loss of a parent, your cousin’s unexpected layoff — it can sometimes feel awkward or difficult to bridge the gap and figure out how to offer help. However, the people most likely to provide a helping hand are often hesitant out of a fear they might say or do the wrong thing or are perplexed by what their hurting loved one even needs, says family grief counselor Jill Cohen. “A lot of times people think, ‘Everyone is bringing dinner, so I won’t,’” she says. “The truth is, if everyone’s thinking like that, it’s quite possible that no one’s doing it.”
Receiving positive social support is crucial to the human experience. Having people to lean on — and vice versa — can increase resilience to stress and blunt the effects of trauma and depression. Don’t let a concern for bungling your words or offering a potentially tone-deaf favor prevent you from showing up for your people. Here’s some advice on how to reach out and offer assistance to a loved one going through a difficult time.
Initiate a conversation with open-ended statements
Among the most helpful ways to support someone experiencing hardship is simply being available, says Roxane Cohen Silver, a distinguished professor of psychological science, public health, and medicine at the University of California Irvine. In her work studying reactions to personal trauma, Silver and her colleagues have found making a phone call and offering to visit are the simplest and most impactful forms of service.
What to say in those initial calls or texts? Cohen suggests, “How are you feeling today?” Because the inquiry is so open-ended, your loved one can answer honestly and as in-depth as they’d like. Questions that are too direct like, “Did you have a good day?” can seem cliché. “We don’t expect when someone is in crisis that they’re going to have a good day,” Cohen says.
“I’m thinking of you,” “You crossed my mind today,” and “I’m just checking in” are also helpful entry points, says licensed marriage and family therapist Kiaundra Jackson. These sentiments are quick, but not unfeeling, don’t require a response, and show your loved one you’re available should they choose to engage.
Consider the closeness of the relationship when weighing what to say and how to deliver the message. A best friend or a sibling grieving the death of a pet may warrant a face-to-face conversation while a text should suffice for a coworker going through a breakup. If you don’t typically make phone calls, it may take the other person by surprise if you’re suddenly calling them; stay consistent with your typical method of communication.
Open-ended statements and questions like, “I’m here if you need anything,” “How can I help?” or, “What do you need?” are too broad. Asking someone who’s upset or grieving what they need puts the onus on them to help you feel useful.
Validate their feelings, don’t minimize them
Whether the anniversary of a death in your friend’s family is nearing or they posted something vaguely emotional on social media, be transparent with why you’re reaching out. You can text something like, “I’m just checking in on you,” Jackson says.
Always validate their emotions by showing you understand what they’re feeling and never question their emotions or reactions, says Razia Sahi, a doctoral researcher at UCLA who studies the effects of social support on emotion and well-being. Done effectively, validation “can deepen your connection to that person and their feelings of comfort in their moments of distress,” she says.
Helpful phrases of validation include:
- That really sucks.
- I hear you.
- I imagine that was difficult for you.
While well-intentioned, people are prone to minimizing others’ difficult experiences, making them feel like what they’re experiencing isn’t significant or their reaction isn’t appropriate. Those who revert to minimizing statements likely aren’t intending to be callous or cruel, but these platitudes can brush away the depth of pain for the person on the receiving end. Here are some minimizing phrases to avoid:
- I’ve been there.
- Just snap out of it.
- Cheer up.
- Everything happens for a reason.
- It could be worse.
Follow their lead when offering support
It may be difficult to decide whether your friend who just got laid off wants emotional support or tangible aid, like career coaching or a gift card for takeout. Try to avoid acting on impulses you think would be helpful to you if you were in your loved one’s shoes. Instead, look at their responses for cues about how to proceed. If, after your initial “Thinking of you” text they respond with “Thank you,” there’s no need to do anything more, Silver says. “It’s important to be a listener and to be conscious of what messages the other person is giving,” Silver says, “and not to impose your own desires and expectations onto anybody else.”
How have they accepted and shown support in the past? This can be a sign of the types of aid they find helpful, Jackson says. Do gifts tend to brighten their day? Or are they the type of friend who is comforted by a deep conversation? Look to the ways they showed up for you when you were going through a tough time, Sahi says. If they suggested taking you out for happy hour and venting, this is a sign they might appreciate the same in return.
Consider the context of their life, too, says Nikki Lovell, the chief executive of Gather My Crew, an Australia-based app for coordinating assistance for loved ones in need. Do they live alone? Have kids or pets? Do they have a lot of medical appointments to attend? “You can make a specific offer to help that makes it clear to them that you have thought about this,” Lovell says, “and you are genuine in your desire to help.” For a parent caring for a sick partner, you might offer to make their kids’ school lunches or send a gift card for a meal delivery service. If you know a relative prefers to be alone in times of distress, showing up at their house with snacks may be too intrusive.
Provide realistic options for assistance
If your loved one is responsive and seems amenable to help, give them a few choices for how you can support them. Be direct and specific when offering a hand, Cohen says. Some suggestions:
- Do you need help cleaning?
- Want to go to a cafe and work on our resumes?
- Can I treat you to a massage?
- Is it alright if I handle bedtime with your kids this week?
- Would you be up for seeing a movie next week?
- I’d be happy to make you dinner tomorrow. Is that something you’d be interested in?
Be realistic in what you can provide, Sahi says. “We all have different capacities at different moments,” she says. You may be well-intentioned in offering to call your friend every night for a month, but this commitment may not fit with your schedule, so make sure to only put forth aid you can deliver.
Another helpful supportive tool, Sahi says, is reappraisal, or to use problem-solving techniques. However, the more distressed someone is, the less likely they will be comfortable with reappraisal, Sahi says. For example, helping someone brainstorm ways to move on after a death probably won’t go over well; suggesting a mock interview with a friend who recently lost a job is a more appropriate use of reappraisal.
In one of Sahi’s studies, participants were comforted by statements that focused on how things change over time. It may be helpful to tell a loved one that how they’re feeling now won’t be how they’ll feel forever. But again, only utilize reappraisal if your friend is open to advice or strategizing.
Don’t force yourself on someone who turns down your bids, but follow up in the future
Inevitably, someone may graciously turn down your offers to assist. Maybe they’re not ready to face outsiders, perhaps they aren’t in need of what you can contribute. Don’t take it personally; your loved one isn’t insulting you, they’re likely still processing. Avoid making repeated proffers too soon, Silver says, but continue to check in after about a week with a simple “Thinking of you” text. Again, follow their lead and keep showing up.
“To be a support provider,” Silver says, “it’s both reaching out but also taking the signals as to what the person needs on their timeline, not on your timeline.”
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Michigan Democrats are going big and bold on abortion and unions with their new trifecta.
Michigan Democrats shocked the nation in November when they won control of both chambers of the state legislature for the first time in nearly 40 years. Now that the legislative session has started, they’re acting swiftly and aggressively on issues ranging from abortion to strengthening unions.
In doing so, they’re laying the groundwork to preserve those delicate majorities in 2024, when Michigan will be a key national battleground. The GOP has long dominated state governments, controlling 57 of 98 partisan legislative chambers across the US. Democrats had some major state wins in 2022, including in Pennsylvania and Michigan. If Michigan Democrats can repeat their success in 2024, they’ll have made a strong case for more national Democratic investment in state legislative contests.
For now, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Democratic legislators seem to be on the same page as they begin work on advancing the agenda she laid out in her recent state of the state address. Binding Michigan’s Democrats together is their shared excitement at the prospect of enacting proposals that previously would not have even been entertained for a hearing in committee, let alone a vote.
“There is a lot of pent-up Democratic energy to be able to get things through without obstruction,” said Democratic state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet, who won a tossup race last year.
Though Whitmer and Democratic legislators have signaled a willingness to work with Republicans, they haven’t appeared too concerned with making overtures to the other side so far. Some legislators who won tough races last year say that they think acting on a bipartisan basis where possible is essential to retaining their majorities in 2024. But others say that delivering results, with or without Republicans, and ensuring they have a record they can run on next year is more important.
“I say this as somebody in a marginal swing seat: go bold, show up for people, put in the work, and I believe that the voters will respect and reward that,” said Democratic state Rep. Betsy Coffia.
Michigan Democrats have been bold out of the gate
In the first weeks since the start of the legislative session, Democrats have already made progress on some of their priorities. In the next two years, they hope to shore up abortion rights, expand LGBTQ rights, implement stricter gun safety measures, take aggressive climate action, institute free universal preschool, and reverse policies like a “right to work” law that hurt union membership and was previously implemented by the Michigan GOP.
They have the numbers to do so, with a 20-18 majority in the state senate and a 56-54 majority in the state house — so long as their caucus stays unified, and that’s been the case so far. At the moment, the biggest question seems to be when any new laws will take effect. In order for bills to be effective immediately, they need at least a two-thirds majority of each chamber to approve them, which would require at least some Republican support. Otherwise, bills will only take effect 90 days after the end of the legislative session.
There could be opportunities for bipartisan action. Whitmer signed roughly 1,000 bills during her first term when the GOP controlled the legislature, even though she vetoed more bills than any Michigan governor since 1953.
The economy could be one such area for compromise. So far, Democrats have reached an agreement with the governor on an economic package that includes $180 “inflation relief checks” for taxpayers, a repeal of the state’s 4.25 percent tax on retirement income, and an expansion of the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, allowing roughly 700,000 low-income workers to claim a state tax credit of 30 percent of the federal amount starting this year, up from 6 percent.
There’s broad support for elements of the proposal given that the state is sitting on a $9 billion budget surplus. But while some Republicans have supported repealing the retirement income tax and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, they’ve expressed concern about issuing relief checks in lieu of a potential cut to the state’s personal income tax and came out against Democrats’ proposal on Wednesday.
Democrats are preparing to go it alone on abortion access, however. They’ve introduced a bill to repeal the state’s ultra-restrictive 1931 abortion ban, which has no exceptions for rape or incest. Republicans had sought to enforce that ban after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year and went to court to defend it. But after Michiganders approved a ballot measure in November that codified abortion rights in the state constitution, the law was already effectively dead. Democrats’ bill would deliver the final blow in striking it from the books.
They have also introduced a bill that would repeal a 1931 ban on contraception and abortion pills. Though Republicans had not signaled that they intended to enforce that ban, Democrats are trying to foreclose any such possibility.
Codifying a 2022 Michigan Supreme Court decision, Democrats have introduced a bill that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. At least 21 other states and Washington, DC have similar laws.
They’re also eyeing legislation to protect poll workers and combat election misinformation and to reinstate the requirement that state construction contractors pay union wages and benefits after the GOP repealed it in 2018.
Guns and unions may test Michigan Democrats’ unity
Upcoming battles over gun safety measures and repealing the state’s “right to work” law, which allows workers to reap union benefits without paying union dues, might prove to be some of the thorniest challenges for Democrats, said Bill Ballenger, a political commentator based in Michigan and former Republican state legislator.
Whitmer has called on the legislature to implement what she called “common sense” gun reforms, including universal background checks, mandatory waiting periods, safe storage laws, and red flag laws, which aims to temporarily prevent people who pose a danger to themselves or others from having firearms.
Michiganders have shown widespread support for many of those policies in public opinion polling. A majority of Michiganders go even further than what Whitmer has proposed, supporting a ban on assault weapons, a limit on the size of gun magazines, and a ban on guns in schools. But some Democrats who won tight contests last year appear reluctant to go too far in a state where nearly 40 percent of residents own a gun.
“If Democrats tried to do more on gun control and it looks draconian, some of these legislators might desert the cause,” Ballenger said.
Republicans and business groups in Michigan are also already campaigning against Democrats’ stated goal of repealing the state’s “right to work” law, arguing with scant evidence that doing so will hamper economic development and make it harder for Michigan to compete for business investment.
Signed in 2012 by then-Republican Gov. Rick Snyder amid protests at the state capitol, the law exempts workers from union dues even when they’re covered by a union contract, which Democrats argue has lowered union membership and undercut wages and benefits.
It’s not clear whether the GOP’s campaign against it has scared off any members of the Democratic caucus yet, but they can’t afford more than a single defection in the state house, and it could bring up internal divisions in the party, Ballenger said.
Overwhelmingly, however, the vibe in the caucus is hopeful for the first time in a long time. Coffia noted that there hadn’t been a Democratic trifecta in Michigan since she was 5 years old and consequently there was “a lot of damage that was done that we need to undo.” McDonald Rivet said that, since the session started, her Democratic colleagues are constantly putting in bill requests and passing them around caucus rooms to get cosigners in an effort to move quickly.
“I think the excitement is really holding us all together. We’re all committed to making sure we all continue to work well together,” said Democratic state Sen. Veronica Klinefelt, who won a tossup race last year.
Can Michigan Democrats hold onto their majorities?
It’s still early days in the legislative session, but the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the fundraising arm of the Democratic Party dedicated to state legislative races, and other outside funders have already identified preserving Democratic majorities in the Michigan legislature as a top priority heading into 2024.
There are differing philosophies on how to achieve that. Whitmer and many Democrats seem to feel that this is a moment to be bold and not waste any time in racking up accomplishments — and that has so far meant abandoning any illusions of bipartisanship.
During her state of the state speech, Whitmer said she hoped to work with Republicans, including on her universal preschool plan. But state Senate GOP leader Aric Nesbitt dismissed those comments as lip service in a response video, and so far, his assessment has been accurate. Practically all of the legislative progress that Democrats can boast so far has been rammed through with their majorities.
“When we get right down to it, Whitmer is not looking for bipartisan support,” Ballenger said. “Whether this backfires and some of these Democrats who won in very iffy swing marginal districts can withstand the blowback in 2024 remains to be seen.”
Some Democrats, though comfortable with the progress that has been made so far, are counseling caution going forward.
“We want to move thoughtfully and not just throw everything at the wall,” Klinefelt said. “I think we’re all on the same page that we’ve got a couple of years here to get some things done. Let’s not try to rush into everything. Let’s take our time and make sure we get things right.”
McDonald Rivet also urged her colleagues not to play political games and make efforts to reach across the aisle if they want to stay in power. She acknowledged that they might not be able to do that on the state budget or on right to work, but said she’s already working with Republican colleagues to help communities affected by flooding and to bring grocery stores to a food desert.
“My voters don’t care who is in the majority. What they care about is whether or not they have high-wage jobs, whether we’re working on the childcare problem, whether or not the schools are strong,” she said.