Tuesday’s election brought victory to Democrats and those who support abortion rights across a range of states, including certain states which voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Democrats gained key legislative and gubernatorial elections across Virginia in addition to Kentucky. Democratic candidates in both states ran on the issue of abortion access.
“I believe it speaks to the issue of abortion rights] as a matter and that it’s not just an issue for Republican or Democratic subject,” said Jessica Taylor of the Cook Political Report. “You have Republicans who clearly vote for it, as Ohio is one of the states in which Trump was able to win by eight percentage points two times.”
Democrats across the country are already looking ahead to the 2024 presidential election and looking forward to Tuesday’s presidential election as a potential litmus to gauge the mood of the nation.
However, Taylor warns against taking these results as tea leaves for 2024.
However, a lot of national Democrats were happy to celebrate the victory of Tuesday.
“Tonight, Americans once again chose to defend their basic rights — and the democratic process won,” Biden wrote on X. Biden posted via X, the platform that was previously called Twitter.
Here’s more to be aware of:
Ohio has voted to defend the right to abortion in the constitution of the state
Ohioans took a vote for a change to their constitution in order to ensure the right to abortion as well as other rights to reproductive health.
Ohio was the one state to vote directly on abortion access during this election. The debates both in favor and against the amendment were a major feature on local radio and received the attention of the nation.
Over 56% of Ohioans backed the amendment. Different polls consistently show between 55% to 58 percent of Ohioans have at least a little support for rights regarding abortion as reported by The Statehouse News Bureau reports.
State’s Republican governor and Republican-led Congress oppose the constitutional amendment and unsuccessfully attempted to amend the state constitution to set the state to have a minimum of 60% in order to approve constitutional amendments instead of simply a simple majority.
The adoption of this amendment puts an end to the state law that bans abortion after the fetal heartbeat is discovered — at least six weeks into the pregnancyand without any exceptions for incest or rape. The law was in effect for a few months in 2022, but was put on hold while legal challenges made towards an Ohio state Supreme Court.
Virginia Democrats took back majority control in the state legislature
The entire 140 seats in the legislature of Virginia were open for bids this year. Democrats not only remained in supremacy in State Senate but also secured enough seats to win the House and give them the ability to fight back against Republican Governor. Glenn Youngkin and his agenda.
Don Scott, the minority leader of House Democrats -and who is favored to be the next House Speaker — claimed that NPR Democratic candidates were the ones with “the campaign message and candidate and the energy to end the radical Republicans agenda.”
Access to abortion played a major part in many the campaigns mentioned, VPM reports. Virginia has been a sort of southern sanctuary for women seeking abortion rights after it was the time that U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Youngkin was one of the Virginia Republican candidate in calling for an end on abortions that begin at 15 weeks with some exceptions for incest, rape and to protect the mother’s life. Youngkin did not use the word “ban,” describing it as the definition of a “limit.”
Taylor of The Cook Political Report, said the test was “really an examination of whether Republicans might be able to convey this in a different way.”
Although abortion rights were in no doubt a major factor in the decision-making process of many Virginia voters however, it’s important to remember that there were a variety of other issues in the race in addition to economics and crime.
Kentucky has been reelected as its Democratic governor
Democratic Governor. Andy Beshear won a second term in Kentucky, beating Trump-backed Republican State Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
Beshear’s popularity has been at a high level in a blue state with people praise his leadership in the COVID outbreak as well as devastating tornadoes, record floods and ice storms Kentucky Public Radio reports.
Govs in office rarely lose, Taylor said — however, it wasn’t just Beshear’s popularity which made a difference in his favor. She claimed Beshear was able to “go in the wrong direction” regarding abortion due to the strict law of the state which prohibits exemptions for incest or rape.
There are signs that the law isn’t in line with Kentucky voters that last year did not approve of an amendment which would have included language in the state constitution that would have made it difficult to fight the restrictions on abortion.
Beshear campaigned on the issue of increasing access to abortions, such as through the use of an emotional advertisement with a young girl who was sexually assaulted by her stepfather when she was 12 years old.
Democrats were thrilled by the victory of Beshear as a bad sign to Republicans for 2024. Kentucky Public Radio states that the winners of the Kentucky’s gubernatorial races in the past six are in line with the results of the next year’s presidential winners.
Mississippi has been reelected as its Republican governor
And, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves won reelection in Mississippi — a state that is the only state that a Democrat has ever ruled in the past 20 years.
He was defeated by Brandon Pressley, a Democrat and one of the three state commissions for public services (not to mention the second cousin to the rock legend Elvis). Pressley campaigned on expanding Medicaid across the state, something that Reeves has resisted doing.
Reeves popularity and his fundraising skills helped him gain a considerable and expected advantage, however the race turned out to be more competitive than people had anticipated and as Mississippi Public Broadcasting reported.
Pressley campaigned across all 82 counties, and was concentrated on involving Black people (which the Reeve’s Democratic opponent in 2019 was accused of having failed to achieve).
Taylor said that the Mississippi race demonstrates how difficult it is to take on incumbent governors.
“I believe that the state’s dynamic won in this regard,” she said.
Historical wins in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania
The night of Tuesday also witnessed historic wins for a number of Black Democratic candidates.
Philadelphia was elected Cherelle Parker to be its 100th mayor. She was the first woman and the first Black woman to be elected to the title.
The 51-year old has served as an elected state representative on the Philadelphia City Council (including as the majority leader) and, most recently, as chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority.
WHYY’s report Parker’s win was anticipated following her victory in the primary election for the party in May with a hard-on-crime platform as well as the backing of the city’s labor unions and its Democratic establishment.
She has said she will hire 300 police officers to and aggressively tackle low-level crime and include members of the National Guard as part of her strategy to combat an opioid epidemic. She has also proposed “year-round” education and slowly cutting down on city wage taxes as well as other ideas.
Parker She has spoken about her birth to an unmarried teenage mother and being raised by her grandparents who rely on food and welfare benefits and told her supporters she will make use of her academic, personal and professional experiences in order to “make Philadelphia the safest, the most green city in America, with economic opportunities for everyone.”
Further to the north Gabe Amo won the special race to represent The Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District seat and became the very first Black person to represent Rhode Island in Congress.
Amo will serve the remainder time of the former Democratic Rep. David Cicilline who resigned in the summer to become chief executive of the Rhode Island Foundation. Amo is seeking an election for the next term in 2024.
The son of 35 years old Ghanaian as well as Liberian immigrants, he most recently was vice director for the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and was Biden’s main liaison to municipal officials and elected officials from local governments.
In addition, Amo has pledged to fight for the legalization of abortion rights in the United States as well as fight for legislation that is federal to fight climate change and push for stronger laws on gun control according to The Associated Press reported.
Amo stated that he will fight against what he called extreme Republican efforts to cut the funding to Social Security as well as Medicare.
“Undoubtedly I’m humbled and grateful for the chance to be one of the few people race,” Amo told the AP. “But I didn’t go to be a part of history.”
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