These will be the biggest policy debates in 2024

California lawmakers are reining in AI. Alabama and Mississippi are finally open to implementing Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. And Arizona lawmakers are considering the therapeutic effects of psychedelic mushrooms.

State lawmakers are increasingly driving big policy debates as Congress struggles to keep the federal government funded. And the impasse on Capitol Hill is likely to get worse this year, with the presidential contest putting partisan discord into overdrive.

That means some of the most significant legislative activity will be taking place in Sacramento, Albany, Tallahassee and other state capitals.

With 40 state governments entirely controlled by one party — 23 Republican trifectas and 17 Democratic — there’s little risk of partisan gridlock grinding the legislative gears to a halt.

Given red and blue states will be charting wildly divergent paths, the policy experiments being conducted in the laboratories of democracy will likely end up further splintering the country.