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“Democrats and abortion rights advocates notched a string of electoral victories on Tuesday… In Ohio, a state that voted for Republican Donald Trump by 8 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election, voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights… In Virginia, Democrats won control of both legislative chambers… And in Kentucky, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear won a second four-year term.” Reuters
The right is disappointed in the results, but argues that they were far from catastrophic.
“Virginia is a state that Joe Biden won by ten points in 2020, and Republican governor Glenn Youngkin won by two points in 2021. When Youngkin won, the Republicans took the House of Delegates by a 52–48 majority; and now, after redistricting, it appears Democrats will hold a 51–49 majority…
“These results suggest that Virginia GOP’s proposed 15-week abortion limit was not the electoral albatross for Republicans that many in the media claim it is. An October Washington Post poll found voters in Virginia — again, we are talking about a Biden+10 state — were evenly split on enacting a 15-week limit…
“Pro-life Americans obviously have a huge problem on up-or-down ballot measures. Advocates of a right to abortion are poised to run the same playbook in every state that allows referendums. But in the 2022 midterms, pro-life candidates who were mainstream Republicans fared well, and the slight improvement for Democrats between 2021 and 2023 in Virginia is not evidence that the issue is toxic for a typical pro-life conservative Republican.”
John McCormack, National Review
“In the long term, the pro-life movement needs to change many more hearts and minds of Americans to win a long-lasting victory across the country. Such change will likely involve seeking incremental gains and prudent legislative compromises… The pro-life cause will ultimately succeed in this country only when many more Americans truly appreciate the dignity of every human person.”
The Editors, National Review
Some argue, “Democrats racked up these wins even though President Biden’s approval rating is down near 40%. The immediate effect of Tuesday’s results was to let Mr. Biden off the media hook for those awful poll numbers, as White House spinners say abortion and MAGA are all Mr. Biden needs to win in 2024. They might be right, though Democrats are still taking an enormous risk given that Mr. Biden must endure another campaign year after he turns 81 on Nov. 20 and is in obvious decline…
“Mr. Trump’s partisans often claim he is realigning the party to include more working-class voters. That’s true, but so far that has been more than offset by the flight of moderates and suburban women from the GOP. Republicans lost or did worse than expected in 2018, 2020, 2022 and again in 2023. That won’t change until Republican voters finally get tired of all the losing.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
The left celebrates the results, and argues that abortion is a winning issue for Democrats.
The left celebrates the results, and argues that abortion is a winning issue for Democrats.
“Anti-abortion leaders tested a host of new tactics this cycle — from rebranding abortion bans as ‘limits’ to claiming the Ohio abortion rights ballot measure was really about curtailing parents’ rights. None of them worked…
“Republican strategists had been banking on November 7 providing them with proof that voters were sick of Democrats talking about abortion. Virginia was supposed to be a proof of concept that would let Republicans run on a ‘consensus’ position on 15-week bans next year…
“A decisive 13-point victory for protecting abortion rights in red Ohio, wins for Democrats in the Virginia legislature where GOP candidates campaigned on rolling back abortion access to 15 weeks, and the decisive reelection of Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who made protecting abortion rights in his red state central to his campaign, provide the clearest evidence to date that voters of all political persuasions do not support the nationwide attack on reproductive freedom and are voting accordingly.”
Rachel M. Cohen, Vox
“In election after election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in May 2022, obliterating the constitutional right to abortion, voters of various parties in red, blue and purple states have made it resoundingly clear that they want the right to control their own bodies and that the choice to continue a pregnancy should be theirs to make, not some state legislator’s. That is a message that all elected officials should heed as we head into the 2024 elections.”
Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times
“The outcomes suggested that, as in 2022, an unusually broad group of voters who believe that Democrats have not delivered for their interests voted for the party’s candidates anyway because they apparently considered the Republican alternatives a threat to their rights and values on abortion and other cultural issues. None of yesterday’s results guarantees success for Biden or Democrats in congressional races next year. It is still easier for other Democrats to overcome doubts about Biden than it will be for the president himself to do so…
“But a clear message from the party’s performance yesterday is that, however disenchanted voters are with the country’s direction under Biden, Democrats can still win elections by running campaigns that prompt voters to consider what Republicans would do with power.”
Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic
