In a reminder that abortion rights will still be a hot topic for Democrats come 2024, proponents of the right to abortion won several election triumphs on Tuesday, November 7, 202, including ones in traditionally conservative Kentucky and Ohio.
According to Edison Research, voters in Ohio, a state that supported Republican Donald Trump by eight percentage points in the 2020 presidential election, approved a constitutional amendment defending the right to abortion.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year to reverse its 1972 Roe v. Wade rule and abolish a national right to end pregnancies, the outcome continued the winning run for proponents of abortion access.
Republicans Governor Glenn Youngkin wanted to seek a ban on most abortions performed more than 15 weeks after conception, but Democrats in Virginia were set to maintain their razor-thin majority in the state Senate.
In a statement, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee declared that while the House was still too close to call, the party had secured control of the Senate.
Additionally, Edison predicted that Democratic Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky would win a second four-year term, bucking the state’s strong conservative trend in a state that supported Trump by a margin of more than 25 percentage points in 2020.
Less than ten weeks before the Iowa presidential nominating contest officially launched the 2024 presidential campaign, the contests were among numerous held around the United States that provided crucial insights into the position of the electorate.
Some national Democrats may find solace in the findings from their concerns about President Joe Biden’s low approval rating among voters.
Biden commended the Ohio outcome in a statement, saying, “Tonight, Americans once again voted to protect their fundamental freedoms, and democracy won.”
Daniel Cameron, the attorney general of Kentucky, was beaten by Beshear, making him the state’s first black chief executive.
Beshear’s leadership throughout the coronavirus outbreak and natural calamities has helped him to maintain strong approval ratings despite his party affiliation. Along with defending abortion rights, he ran on the platform of doing away with the state’s all but complete ban on the procedure.
As he celebrated his triumph, Beshear described it as a “clear statement that anger politics should end right here and right now.”
Ohio became the latest hotbed of abortion controversy about a year and a half after the Supreme Court ruling.
Abortion-related ballot initiatives were put on the ballot last year, resulting in a number of wins for pro-choice campaign groups, including in conservative areas.
They’ve intensified their use of that tactic. The Ohio result will strengthen the efforts being made to provide comparable ballot issues to voters in a number of states for 2024, including Florida and Arizona, two swing states.
Abortion rights organizations cautioned that rejecting the Ohio amendment would open the door for a strict ban to go into place, while anti-abortion forces argued that it was too drastic.
The six-week limit that the Republican-controlled legislature had previously established is nullified by Tuesday’s vote. A court challenge had put the law on hold.
Every one of the 100 House of Delegate seats and all 40 Senate seats were up for election in Virginia.
Democrats wanted abortion to be the main concern. Youngkin had presented his suggested 15-week limit as a reasonable middle-ground approach, one that Republicans might use as a model the next year.
Having spent millions of dollars on the campaign, Youngkin’s political action committee was disappointed when Republicans were unable to secure a majority in the legislature. Youngkin has stated he has no plans to run for president in 2024, but some Republicans who are afraid of Trump have suggested he would enter the race late.
Last week, Biden increased his influence in the election by endorsing 16 Democratic candidates in close contests for the state House and seven for the Senate, as well as by pleading with supporters for money.
In other election-related news on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, Republican Tate Reeves of Mississippi led his Democratic opponent, former mayor and Elvis Presley’s second cousin, Brandon Presley.
Despite raising a higher amount of money than Reeves, Presley faced an uphill battle in a state where Trump defeated Biden by more than 16 percentage points in 2020.
With around 60% of the anticipated vote counted, Reeves was ahead by more over 14 percentage points, but the race remained too close to call late on Tuesday, according to Edison.
Despite a long list of legal issues, Trump, the front-runner for his party’s 2024 presidential candidate, endorsed both Reeves and Cameron in Kentucky.
Ref: Reuters
