Democratic Candidates Use Roe v Wade Overturning to Attract Supporters for Voting Season

By: Sarah Wang

While Republicans are trying to shift the country’s focus to inflation and crime, Democratic candidates across the United States are rushing to use anger from the recent overturning of Roe v Wade to gain supporters. Many are putting the issue at the front of their campaigns, attracting many followers for voting season just a few months away.

Due to unlikely changes to abortion rights in federal law, states will individually have to decide on the matter, making state-level voting all the more important. State candidates have been rushing to use the issue to gain more traction for their campaigns. Biden himself has declared that “Roe is on the ballot” and “personal freedoms are on the ballot”.

As more and more states impose strict abortion bans, new candidates for state-level positions pledge to prioritize resolving this issue in their campaigns.

For example, Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer says that she will “fight like hell” to restore abortion rights, with this issue being at the top of her list as governor.

Democratic representative Val Demings takes a similar approach in her attempt to unseat Florida’s current Republican Senator Marco Rubio. “I do think going back and treating women and girls like second class citizens or property, I think that matters a hell of a lot to men and women in Florida,” Demings states during an interview.

At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, many were upset with the Democrats’ choice to close down schools in the suburbs. These abortion-related promises may help the Democratic party’s image, especially amongst women.

Many Republicans are attempting to stray away from the abortion issue by prioritizing things like rising gas prices and the recent increase in crime rates. However, this may cause people to prefer the other party due to the timeliness of the issue they’re tackling.

“Roe doesn’t change settled law and it won’t distract voters from unaffordable prices, rising crime or the border crisis,” says Adam Laxalt, the Republican Senate nominee in Nevada.

Some Republicans also simply disagree with the Pro-choice side and are content with the current law. “There’s no exception in my mind,” said Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, “Like I say, I believe in life. I believe in life.”

Trigger laws regarding abortion have already been implemented in over a dozen states, stirring up controversy from both political parties. In Ohio, one of the states which have already banned abortions, political members of both parties have spoken up about the law. Democratic Senate nominee Tim Ryan declares that “[The banning of abortions] is insanity! Ohio has traditionally been a centrist state.”

Ohio’s Republican Attorney General Dave Yost lifted a ban regarding abortions after about six weeks. Although this decision has caused some fighting over liberal groups, Ryan is confident in his decision, saying, “We built a campaign around issues like freedom — economic freedom, good middle class jobs and wages and making sure we rebuild the middle class. This is an issue of freedom as well.”