Minority legislators push for substantial change

In state legislatures across the country, minority legislators and their allies are seizing on the nation’s reckoning with racial injustice to insist that equity be considered in a range of legislation. And many are urging their colleagues to be bold.

“If we don’t do it now, we will never get it done,” said Connecticut state Sen. Doug McCrory of Hartford, a Black legislator who called for an end to “Novocain” legislation: numbing, incremental bills that don’t make major improvements for people of color regarding housing, economic opportunity, education and more.

A similar sentiment was echoed in California, where the first Black lawmakers to lead that Legislature’s two public safety committees promised to bring “radical change” to improve the treatment of Black and Hispanic people by law enforcement.

The push comes as legislators of color are growing in numbers and political clout in some states, giving them greater ability to advance such ambitious legislation that’s being urged by their constituents.

According to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, the number of Hispanic state legislators has grown nationally from 197 members in 2001 to 332 in 2021. The association also identified Hispanic lawmakers holding top legislative leadership positions in nine states. Meanwhile, there are currently 752 Black lawmakers in state and U.S. territory legislatures, according to the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

Even as Black, Hispanic and Asian lawmakers move into leadership positions in Democratic-leaning states, some politically red states are considering bills that may limit voting participation.

In Georgia, where Republicans control the legislature, Democratic lawmakers of color failed to stop the passage of a contentious election law that adds a photo ID requirement for voting absentee by mail and cuts the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, among other provisions. It’s part of a tide of GOP-sponsored election bills introduced in legislatures across the country after Republican former President Donald Trump claimed there was widespread election fraud.

While Republicans in Georgia have argued the law is needed to restore voters’ confidence, critics have said it will make it harder for people to vote.

Arturo Vargas, CEO of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund, said he believes the voting legislation that passed in Georgia and similar proposals considered in other Republican-leaning states reflect an attempt to curb the growing influence of minority state lawmakers.

But not all lawmakers of color support these efforts to promote racial equity through state laws. In Connecticut, Republican Rep. Kimberly Fiorello, who is of Asian descent, recently questioned language that referred to addressing racial and gender disparities in a bill legalizing the adult use of cannabis.

But the renewed scrutiny of fatal police shootings, coupled with mass protests, have pushed more legislators to take on equity issues, said Tanya Cook, a former state senator in Nebraska and now the policy lead at the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.

“They can say there’s no such thing as systemic racism, but they sound like an idiot,” Cook said. “I think people seeing George Floyd get killed and Breonna Taylor and all of the uprising that we saw over the last year, with people of all ages and colors participating, heightened the awareness that, ‘Hey, I maybe thought things had changed with [former President] Barack Obama, but clearly they haven’t.’”