Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado has long been a leading defender of abortion rights. But her record didn’t help much with voters earlier this month when she lost her primary to upstart democratic socialist Melat Kiros.
Similarly, Maine state auditor Matt Dunlap beat state Sen. Joe Baldacci in the Democratic primary in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in June, despite attacks about Dunlap’s past anti-abortion record being a major part of the messaging against him.
These are the most recent examples of how abortion has receded as an issue in 2026 compared to the 2022 and 2024 elections, when it was one of Democrats’ top electoral focuses. In fact, more than three times as many abortion-related ads ran from January to mid-July 2024 — with candidates and organizations spending nearly double on them — as did in the same period of 2026, according to a NOTUS analysis of data from AdImpact, an advertising tracking company.
But Democrats’ focus on abortion rights didn’t deliver wins for the party in 2024 the way it did in 2022. Democrats effectively prevented a red wave in the 2022 midterms by heavily messaging against the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that protected abortion access. Republicans fended off Democrats’ abortion attacks in 2024, with President Donald Trump formally declaring that the Republican Party did not support a federal abortion ban.
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This election cycle, polling has continuously shown that voters are mostly concerned about the economy and cost of living, with abortion dropping as a top issue. As a result, lawmakers and abortion rights groups are making adjustments.
Abortion “is just as important, but I think what’s happened is that back in 2022, with the Supreme Court decision, people felt the immediate impacts, and now people are really feeling the increased cost of living, and you know whether it’s rent, groceries,” Democratic Rep. Nanettee Barragán of California told NOTUS.
Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada) said abortion would definitely play a part in her race because Nevada is one of three states with a constitutional measure to protect abortion rights on the ballot. But, she said, “I think the economy is a far bigger issue for people on a day-to-day basis.”
One House Democrat from a competitive district who declined to comment on the record told NOTUS that the party not prioritizing abortion messaging is a positive.
“If you polled the American people in November of last year and you said, ‘What are the issues that you care about the most?’ they would say affordability, immigration, taxes, crime and health care,” the lawmaker said. “If you asked those same people, ‘What do you think the Democrats are pushing?’ they would say abortion rights, LGBTQ rights. … That’s why we were losing, because we weren’t talking about the things that people were talking about.”
While Democrats have stepped back on their abortion messaging, abortion rights groups have announced major spending and are encouraging Democrats to message on abortion by tying it to affordability.
Reproductive Freedom for All announced a $23.5 million campaign to mobilize voters and “hold anti-abortion politicians accountable.” It’s the most the group has spent in a midterm election. Planned Parenthood is spending over $47 million to unseat Republicans who voted to “defund” the organization through the so-called One, Big, Beautiful Bill.
Angela Vasquez-Giroux, vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood Votes, told NOTUS that the group understands that voters aren’t only considering abortion when looking into November, but that Democrats still need to focus on the issue because it can help rally voters.
“The folks they’re speaking to have concerns around yes, groceries, yes, gas prices, yes, health care, yes, abortion,” Vasquez-Giroux said. “All of those things are weighing on people’s minds, and we can’t set any of those aside or make assumptions about what people want to hear from champions, from incumbents.”
Another reason abortion may not be talked about much this cycle is that some Democrats are facing competitive primaries. Unlike previous election cycles, Democrats have seen a surge in progressive challengers driven by anti-establishment outrage.
The outcomes for both DeGette and Dunlap are products of that.
“The electorate is full of rage,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vermont), who has led major abortion-rights legislation, told NOTUS. “I think anyone in office right now could be susceptible to that because people are so desperate right now in terms of not being able to afford housing, health care. They don’t think they have a good future that they can think about.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts), who, along with DeGette, co-chairs the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, formerly known as the Pro-Choice Caucus, attributed DeGette’s loss to voters’ desire for change in the Democratic Party: “I was elected in a primary myself, and 2018 was in many ways a change election year, and I think we’re in the midst of something very similar.”
Pressley, however, pushed back at criticism that abortion isn’t as salient in 2026, saying that it’s tied to the economy: “It’s an economic issue, and so when you say that people care about affordability and they care about bread-and-butter issues, core to that is someone’s bodily autonomy.”
One Democratic strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told NOTUS that incumbents with strong abortion-rights records can’t rely on them alone to fend off Democratic challengers because supporting access is already a party tenet. Kiros and DeGette both support codifying abortion rights into federal law, so voters in the race instead looked for “somebody who’s perceived as more of a fighter rather than a legislative tactician,” the strategist said.
DeGette told NOTUS that abortion “was not really an issue in my race.” She said voters are mostly “thinking about affordability and fighting against Trump,” but added that it’s still an issue that voters see as a disqualifier, particularly for Republicans candidates, calling it “a gateway to whether they’re going to support somebody or not.”
Baldacci tried to use abortion against Dunlap in the Maine primary.
Baldacci was endorsed by Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly known as NARAL, and he released an ad attacking Dunlap because he voted for a bill in 2003 that would have required doctors to tell patients at least 24 hours before a scheduled abortion about risks of the procedure and about alternatives. The bill never became law in Maine.
Dunlap put out his own ad in response, calling Baldacci a “lying puppet owned by DC corporate bosses.” The ad said Dunlap “is pro-choice,” that he has a “100% pro-choice rating” and that he was endorsed by the “former head of Planned Parenthood.”
Harry Burke, a spokesperson for Dunlap, directed NOTUS to a nonpartisan VoteSmart analysis on his record. However, the analysis shows he didn’t always have the highest rating for backing abortion rights bills.
Burke said that in the general election, Dunlap would target former Gov. Paul LePage, his GOP opponent, for opposing abortion: “Matt will defend reproductive freedom in Congress.”
Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO for Reproductive Freedom for All, which endorsed Baldacci, told NOTUS that “Mainers care deeply about abortion and if Baldacci was able to make the aggressive case that his opponent was going to harm abortion rights, I think that was a fair shot and it was something that was persuasive to us. But was it the main issue that drove that election? No.”
Abortion could be a factor in Maine’s Senate race, following Graham Platner’s exit as the Democratic candidate. Troy Jackson, former Maine state Senate president, who hopes to replace Platner as the nominee, is already facing questions about his past support for anti-abortion legislation.
If Jackson becomes the Democratic nominee, he will face Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has a long record of voting in favor of protecting abortion rights. Jackson recently released an ad saying “abortion is health care, and that is something that I am going to fight for every day of the week.”
Some Democrats say that while they’re not seeing abortion emerge as a top issue, the party is still committed to expanding access.
Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider said he always mentions abortion rights in campaign speeches, despite it not being front of mind for voters.
“No one’s asking me about it,” he said. “They just expect me to be there.”
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