Democrats Can’t Rely on Abortion to Win Elections

“It’s undeniable that it wasn’t enough to not see these states swing wholesale to Trump and to Republicans,” one Democratic strategist told NOTUS.

Protesters hold competing signs.

Jeenah Moon/AP

When Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, abortion rights advocates celebrated having a candidate who — unlike Joe Biden — knew how to talk about an issue that had been a winner since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Ten states also put statewide abortion-related measures on their ballots, sure to drive Democratic turnout in battleground states.

What ended up happening is that some abortion initiatives won out: Missouri became the first state to effectively overturn a near-total abortion ban, and New York passed an unprecedented Bill of Rights expansion. But measures to protect abortion — in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota — failed for the first time since Dobbs.