The Slice from PBS North.

You got the first look at our 2025 State of Bipartisanship report.

My name is Shannon Watson.

I am the executive director of Majority in the Middle.

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to equip and enable civility in civic and public life.

We don't have our own policy agenda.

The only thing that we are concerned about is, is how people are experiencing the legislature.

The first report that we did in 2023, it uncovered what we call the hidden bipartisanship.

You don't really have time in a part time legislature on the floor to do, like a thousand bills, to do all of the votes.

That would take forever.

So what they do is they group them into omnibus bills.

Now, in some ways, that makes sense, like the budget bills.

That absolutely makes sense.

And all of that bipartisan work that was happening in the middle was getting covered up at the end of session when everything got piled into the omnibus bills.

And then those passed or failed on party line votes.

Our recommendation is on things that there is bipartisan agreement, pull those out and run those standalone, because then that gives not only the public, but also the legislators an opportunity to remember that there are far more things that we generally agree on than we disagree on.

Check out the report on our website Majoritymiddle.org.

State of bipartisanship.

Look at the report.

Find the page for your legislators.

Each legislator has a page of of their results.

Check it out if you like what you see, let them know.

Know.

The Slice from PBS North, presented by the Teberg Fund.