POLITICO — For Republicans this year, the minimum wage is the wedge issue from hell.
Even as Democrats lurch toward a potentially disastrous midterm election, support for raising the federal minimum wage is resonating with voters. In fact, it may be the only issue on which Democrats are winning: A Pew Research Center poll earlier this year found 90 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans favored raising the federal minimum to $10.10 from its current $7.25, as proposed by President Barack Obama.
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Four Republican-leaning states have state-level minimum wage increases on the ballot this year — Alaska ($9.75), Arkansas ($8.50), Nebraska ($9), and South Dakota ($8.50) — and the increases will likely pass in all four. The same goes for a non-binding Illinois referendum on raising the minimum wage to $10. Democrats anticipate these measures will boost Democratic turnout in all five states, particularly among African-Americans.
“It gives Democrats a concrete offer on what is increasingly seen as the main problem,” says Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. “Jobs that don’t pay enough to live on … people know what a struggle it is for low-wage workers.”
Republicans remain confident they’ll retake the Senate, but that’s partly because some have defused the issue by endorsing the ballot measures.
Read more at POLITICO.
