The backlash to legislative attempts to limit abortion access proved to be a winning strategy for Democrats during last week's off-year elections in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. Now, Democrats are moving to get more abortion measures on the ballot during next year's pivotal elections.
The effort could help strip Republicans of control of the House and help President Joe Biden get reelected despite low approval numbers if the ballot measures are successful. At least eight states could see an abortion ballot measure next year if Democrats get their way. Among those eight states are nearly 24 competitive House races that could decide control of the lower chamber.
REPUBLICANS NAVIGATE CULTURE WAR SETBACK ON ABORTION
Maryland and New York will have a referendum on abortion during the 2024 elections. Arizona, Florida, and Nevada have abortion advocates attempting to get constitutional amendments on the ballot. In Iowa, Republicans may propose an amendment to the state constitution that nullifies the right to an abortion. Advocates in Colorado and Nebraska are pushing for proposed amendments that would either limit or protect access to abortion.
New York Democrats are prepared to spend $20 million on the ballot measure in an effort to reenergize their base after disappointing results during the 2022 midterm elections. Republicans flipped four New York House seats in 2022 that Democrats hope to take back in 2024.
"Heading into 2024, this is what's clear: Vulnerable New York Republicans are going to be held responsible by voters for their abysmal records and their own majority's chaos," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Ellie Dougherty said.
In Arizona and Nevada, crucial Senate races will also help determine if Republicans can capture the upper chamber from Democrats. Biden won both states by a slim majority in 2020, but his party faces an uphill climb to holding on to control. Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-WV) decision not to seek reelection further adds to the problems of Democrats, who will likely lose the seat to Republicans.
After last week's elections — in which Virginia Republicans lost control of both chambers in the state legislature, severely thwarting Gov. Glenn Youngkin's (R-VA) hopes of enacting a 15-week abortion restriction, Ohio voters chose to enshrine abortion into the state's constitution, and Kentucky Republicans failed to unseat popular Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) — Democrats are counting on voters rescuing their party from a shellacking next year if the election becomes about abortion again.
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The overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 may have been a win for Republicans after decades of strategizing, but it has also been an electoral anvil for the GOP, thwarting an expected red wave in 2022. Yet the GOP argues there is a national consensus on a 15-week abortion ban.
Democrats, in the meantime, have already begun lambasting Republicans over abortion, hoping to move away from dismal polling on the economy and the president.