Minimum Wage Activists Look to 2020 Ballots After Midterm Success

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The campaign for higher minimum wages originated years ago in blue cities like New York and Seattle, but it's proving pretty popular in Trump country as well.

Voters in both Arkansas and Missouri, two states that went strongly for President Donald Trump in 2016, passed ballot initiatives to increase the state minimum wage during Tuesday's midterm elections.

Initiatives in Florida, Nevada and North Dakota are already in the works for the presidential ballot in 2020.

"Folks in Washington are bragging about how good the economy is," said Jonathan Schleifer, executive director of The Fairness Project, the Washington-based advocacy group that backed this year's measures and is leading organizing for 2020. "People don't pay their rent or put food on the table based on the stock market -- it's how much money is in their paycheck."

Arkansans will see a boost from its current $8.50 an hour to $11 an hour by 2021, and Missouri will raise the minimum wage from $7.85 an hour in 2018 to $12 an hour in 2023.

Both measures enjoyed overwhelming support, with 68 percent of Arkansas voters and 62 percent of Missouri voters voting in favor.

Minimum wage ballot initiatives have also won handily in red and purple states, such as South Dakota, Nebraska and Arizona, in the past two election cycles.

In Missouri, the measure attracted bipartisan support, winning more votes than either Democratic incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill or her victorious Republican challenger, state Attorney General Josh Hawley.

"Claire McCaskill got 1.1 million votes. If every single person also voted for [the minimum wage increase], that still leaves 387,000 voters," said Carl Walz, campaign manager of Raise Up Missouri, the local organizer for the measure. "That's potentially 31 of the people who voted for Josh Hawley."

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