ICYMI: Abortion Rights was THE Central Issue in the 2022 Elections
For Immediate Release: Dec. 19, 2022
WASHINGTON — Today, Politico’s Elena Schneider and Holly Otterbein reported on “how the fall of Roe v. Wade shook the 2022 election,” calling abortion rights “THE central issue.”
Scheider and Otterbein highlighted the impact of the monumental Supreme Court decision that took away the national right to an abortion and how it shaped several key races across the country. They shared insights on how the Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, and John Fetterman campaigns quickly made abortion rights a central piece of their platform on the campaign trail, and how many anti-abortion candidates were never able to legitimize themselves with voters. The piece underscores the unequivocal role abortion rights will continue to play in electoral politics.
Politico: ‘THE central issue’: How the fall of Roe v. Wade shook the 2022 election:
- “But in that focus group in Michigan — and, in the months ahead, dozens of others held by Democrats and Republicans across the country — campaign strategists kept making the same startling finding: Abortion hadn’t simply awakened Democratic voters. It was actually persuading swing voters.”
- “On Election Day, voters in critical states like Michigan and Pennsylvania ranked abortion — not inflation or crime — as the most important issue in the midterms, according to exit polls.”
- “Yet, in many battleground and red-leaning states and districts, especially where Democrats spent millions to keep it at the forefront for voters, abortion access played an outsized role, reversing the party’s once abysmal outlook.”
- “The Supreme Court decision that ended a nearly half-century of federal abortion rights triggered a fierce backlash against the Republican Party from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the plains of Kansas. It mobilized the liberal base, enabled Democrats to effectively paint GOP candidates as too extreme among independents, and even turned off some Republican women — something that some party officials even saw happen within their own families.”
- “Democratic and Republican operatives said that means abortion is poised to play as big a role, if not bigger, in upcoming elections, triggering a dramatic shift in political strategy as liberal groups target more states for abortion-related ballot initiatives.”
- “Oz’s campaign was pleased with how the debate went. But on the broader question of how abortion affected the race, people in Oz’s orbit think it played a role in his loss.”
- “... abortion was THE central issue of the campaign.”
Read more here.
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Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit membership organization formed as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Action Fund engages in educational, advocacy, and limited electoral activity, including grassroots organizing, legislative advocacy, and voter education.