Several political efforts in 2016 have succeeded amidst the rather polarizing election year. The following are 16 political gains not to be overlooked from the past year.

1. Raises in the Minimum Wage Across the Country

16 states, along with over a dozen cities (including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Berkeley, California), increased the minimum wage during 2016. The minimum wage was set to increase for millions of workers in 19 states across the country at the start of 2017.

2. Fair trade policy activists celebrate the death of the TPP.

The defeat of the Trans-Pacific Partnership last year came as a relief for many who supported the trade policy positions of Senator Bernie Sanders and President-Elect Donald Trump throughout the 2016 election.

3. College affordability, accessibility, and student debt became a part of National discussion.

From the Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s plan to cancel all student loan debt to the Democratic Party and its Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton’s eventual adoption of Senator Sanders’ tuition-free college plan into its platform, the financial issues facing college students and their families took center-stage in 2016 political debates.

4. National Solidarity with the Native American Community

Since April 2016, Native American leaders and their families, along with their Water Protector allies, have bravely maintained unarmed opposition in the creation of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Fighting for the preservation of clean and safe water sources for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reservation’s Natives and the protection of water’s inherent sanctity to the Earth (Mni Wiconi or “Water is Life”), our Native brothers and sisters were joined in early December by thousands of army veterans, standing in a beautiful display of solidarity with Native rights as human shields.

Many "#NoDAPL" supporters have advocated defunding DAPL by liquidating their accounts at major financial institutions funding the pipeline project (Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo to name a few) and withdrawing a striking 28.2 million dollars as of December.

5. The Senate passes significant bipartisan antislavery legislation.

Initially introduced in 2015 by US Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act overwhelmingly passed the Senate in December. This bold legislation turns awareness into action by integrating matching funds from the United States, foreign governments, and the private sector: imparted to aid in the recovery of modern-day slavery survivors and enforcement of the law against perpetrators with the ultimate aim of a significant reduction of modern-day slavery in concentrated areas within the period of seven years.

6. The Democratization of the Electoral Process

In July, the Democratic Party’s Democratic Rules Committee approved to amend the influence of superdelegates in the electoral process. While elected legislators and governors who serve as superdelegates will preserve their roles, the remaining two-thirds of superdelegates will be bound to the primary and caucus results of the states they were selected to represent. While superdelegates remain an undemocratic element of the party’s electoral process, this amendment is a step forward for the 2020 Democratic presidential bid in more accurately reflecting the will of the voters.

7. The fight to get big money out of politics dominated political discourse.

Campaign finance reform was front-and-center in the 2016 race, a shift in political dialogue chiefly prompted by Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, who led his national campaign for the presidency without a super-PAC and called for the overturning of the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United (which later made its way into the campaign finance reform portion of the 2016 Democratic Party Platform).

8. Berkeley, California passes campaign finance reform.

The City of Berkeley’s Measure X1 passed with 64% support of voters last Fall. Measure X1 will establish a voluntary system of publicly-funded City Council and Mayoral elections in order to encourage local candidates to collect small-donor contributions from a broader base of the community and increase officials’ accountability to their constituencies.

9. Changes to California’s Rape Laws

Outrage heightened in June 2016 when Brock Turner, facing a maximum of 14 years in prison, was sentenced to six months, with three years of probation, for 3 counts of sexual assault. California state legislators approved two measures, Bills 701 and 2888 which would expand the state definition of rape and eliminate probation as an option for perpetrators whose victims were unconscious or intoxicated.

10. Environmental Gains in Monterey County

Monterey County’s Measure Z passed by 56 to 44 percent, in spite of being outspent by industry giants 30-to-1. This fracking ban provides hope for environmental activists in their fight for a national fracking ban and tax on carbon emissions, policies which fell short of inclusion in the 2016 Democratic Party platform.

11. Childcare accessibility and affordability for working families were addressed by both major parties.

The Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton advocated for increased investments in childcare subsidies, providing tax relief for childcare costs for working families and guaranteeing up to 12 weeks of paid family leave. Concurrently, President-Elect Donald Trump championed tax deductions for childcare and elderly dependents’ expenses for working families, income tax credit and matched $500 funds for low-income households and 6 weeks of paid leave for working mothers.

12. Water crises rose to National conversation.

Awareness of the struggle for water in American cities spanned from high levels of lead contamination in Flint, Michigan, toxic water by lead and copper in St. Joseph, Louisiana, and corrosive asphalt found in water at Corpus Christi, Texas, to water contamination in Milwaukee, Portland, Detroit, and Cleveland schools. With rising national attention in the fight for clean and safe water in 2016, serious discussions surrounding investments to secure American water infrastructure are bound to take place in the new year.

13. The Rise of Alternative Media Outlets

Alternative media outlets and political commentators ranging across the political spectrum have helped to diversify and democratize news coverage. The online news channel, The Young Turks, broke its own viewership record this year, with more than 4.5 million total hits on its 3 separate live streams analyzing the 2016 election results.

14. The Rise of Third Party Candidates

With low favorability ratings for the presidential candidates of both major parties, many American voters turned towards third party candidates when voting this year. With multiple TV-broadcasted Town Hall specials for the Green Party nominee Jill Stein and the Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, increasing their exposure, Governor Johnson ultimately won 3.3% of popular vote while Dr. Stein garnered 1.0% of national support, tripling their vote share from the earlier election; a vast improvement over 2012, when the same two candidates won 0.99% and 0.36% respectively. Political competition is necessary for a healthy and thriving democracy.

15. History Made: First Female Nominee of a Major Party and the First Electoral Vote Cast for a Native American

During July 2016 in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential nominee of a major party. December 19 marked a major advance in American Indigenous rights, as a “Faithless” Clinton elector cast the first ever presidential electoral vote for a Native American, an activist named Faith Spotted Eagle from South Dakota’s Yankton Sioux.

16. A Unified Republican Government

The Republican Party made great gains in 2016, picking up three governorships in Missouri, New Hampshire and Vermont (totaling 33 Republican state governorships nationally), retaining control of Congress and ultimately winning the White House.