Gov. Kathy Hochul championed abortion rights Wednesday in what strategists said is part of a campaign strategy to help Democrats keep the White House and win back congressional seats in 2024.
Hochul appeared at a Planned Parenthood event and vowed a push to enshrine the right in the state Constitution — despite New York already having among the strongest abortion access laws in the country.
The issue has been a rallying cry for pro-choice advocates since the US Supreme Court overturned the 50-year Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022, thus kicking abortion policy back to the states.
“The right to an abortion will be enshrined forever after this November’s election because it’s on the ballot and I’ve called on the governors of other states to do the same,” Hochul said.
“We can thwart what the Supreme Court is trying to do to our nation. We can set them backwards by showing that the power of the rest of the people and the power occurs at the ballot box in places like New York and every other place where abortion rights have been on the ballot since the Dobbs decision” overturning Roe,” she added.
Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said the timing of Hochul’s abortion push is more than coincidental — coming just a few weeks before early voting begins in the Feb. 13 special election to succeed the expelled GOP Rep. George Santos in House District 3 covering Nassau County and Eastern Queen, pitting former Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi against Republican Mazi Pilip.
“House District 3 in New York is the first test. She wants to help elect Suozzi,” Sheinkopf said of Hochul.
He noted that Democrats from President Biden on down are struggling with voters on other pressing issues against former President Donald Trump and the GOP.
“Abortion is the club. Abortion is the issue that gives Democrats the edge where they have no other edge — they lose it on the border crisis, they lose it on crime and they even lose it on the economy,” Sheinkopf said.
State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said given the pressing problems confronting New York and the nation, Democrats’ push for abortion is the only card they have to play — and it is a weak one.
“Hochul is using the abortion issue to provide political cover for Democrats who really have a problem with what most New Yorkers consider the primary issues affecting the state –migration, policing and the quality of life,” Kassar said.
State Sen. George Borrello, a Buffalo area Republican said: “The Democrats have a horrible record to run on. The quality of life has declined. New York is overrun with migrants.
“Abortion is the dog whistle issue. New York already has the broadest abortion law in the country.”
Republican pollster John McLaughlin said “without a doubt” Democrats are using abortion as a “political tool” — but noted there are other issues on on the ballot along with abortion that include protecting “gender identity, gender expression” that “opens up a Pandora’s box.”
Campaign strategists across the spectrum said abortion is the one issue that cuts in favor of Democrats over Republicans.
Voters have supported pro-abortion amendments or rejected restrictions in other states, including in Michigan and Kansas.
Political sources said Republicans failed to make bigger gains in the 2022 midterm elections because Democrats scored points on the abortion issue.
Even Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said GOP candidates have to be better prepared to address the issue.