This fall, the most important elections won’t be the races to fill all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 in the Senate, but the state governments — their legislatures, governors, and, in some states, their highest courts.
That isn’t how we usually think about our votes. Especially since 2016, campaigns for national office have dominated news coverage. The 2022 congressional midterm elections matter — the composition of Congress carries great weight in how we will address important national concerns such as inflation. Yet there are important reasons why state elections deserve to take the front seat in November.
First, we face the crime problem. We have seen its precipitous rise, especially in violent crime, over the last few years. In the Declaration of Independence, our founders described the end of government as “to secure” unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, addressing crimes against persons and property constitutes the most fundamental purpose of government.
In our system of federalism, the government primarily tasked with providing that security is the state government. In Federalist No. 45, James Madison wrote, “The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people.” Criminals threaten our lives with violence, our liberty with fear, and our property with theft. We must focus on our state officeholders to hold them accountable for how they have handled this and demand protection for our rights in the future.
Second, we face a crisis in education. In no system of government is universal education more important than a republic such as our own. Those who rule should possess both the knowledge of the good and a will to pursue it — qualities acquired by learning. In America, we the people are the rulers. Thus, we the people must have access to the requisite education needed not just to rule but to rule well.
Sadly, our schools fail to transmit knowledge of the history and principles of our country essential to the cultivation of virtuous, self-governing citizens. Instead, far too many of America’s schools demand far too little rigor while indulging woke ideology. Even with increasing federal encroachment, our Constitution places education with the states, which remain the most important players in learning. We must ask how our states can do better, both through changes in curriculum and by offering more educational opportunities for parents to choose the right school for their children.
Third, we find ourselves in a new era with abortion rights. This summer, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. While they remained in force, those decisions severely constricted how states could regulate abortion. Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, states gained wide leeway to construct abortion policy as they think best.
In returning that decision to the states, the Supreme Court initiated one of the greatest returns of power to the states in the last century. This change is right. The states should decide this important question as they did for the first nearly two centuries of our history. We now have the ability to debate in a meaningful way the competing claims of pro-life and pro-choice advocates on their claims regarding life and liberty. For the first time in generations, positions taken on abortion by state legislators, governors, and judges will have tangible, genuine effects on the question of how we protect life in the womb.
This move to the states can help us return to policymaking. Too much of our national politics involves little more than rhetoric. Bills submitted by our members of Congress often more resemble glorified press releases than serious attempts to pass laws.
We need governments that work, that actually engage in the hard task of governing for the good of the people. A new focus on the states might be the ticket to doing that task better across the country.
Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.
