The 2020 Black Lives Matter riots and the subsequent defund the police movement inspired by them emboldened criminals to act without impunity and left many communities without the resources to contain rising crime. The 2024 elections provided a snapback to normalcy as most people across the country have decided locking up unrepentant career criminals was actually the sensible policy all along.

Aside from the country’s rightward shift in the 2024 presidential race, tough-on-crime victories and “criminal justice reform” losses were the biggest stories of the election cycle. California’s Proposition 36 was the most well-known ballot proposition in the country, promising to turn back the 2014 ballot proposition that softened criminal penalties for thefts and shoplifting. Prop 36 makes serial shoplifting or carjacking a felony, increases felony sentences for thefts, allows people with multiple drug offenses to be charged with “treatment-mandated felonies,” and allows murder charges for fentanyl dealers.