Reading Time: 4 minutes
Democrats experienced success with several pro-abortion ballot initiatives in 2022. Now, ahead of one of the most significant elections in American history, Democrat and Republican strategic ballot initiatives are addressing abortion and unborn lives.
From The Epoch Times. The Florida Supreme Court issued a long-awaited ruling on April 1, upholding a 15-week abortion ban that was signed into law in 2022. The ruling paved the way for a six-week abortion ban to take effect on May 1.
Find out when your state prays.
A second ruling on the same day allowed an initiative to amend the state constitution to guarantee abortion access to be placed before voters. …
Barely a week later, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions in the state. Three days later, the Biden campaign initiated a seven-figure ad buy in the Grand Canyon State, including a billboard that reads, “Abortion is banned in Arizona thanks to Donald Trump. He won’t stop until it’s banned nationwide. #TrumpsAbortionBan.”
Democrats are leveraging abortion as a central issue in the 2024 election, and they are waging that campaign through ballot initiatives in key battleground states.
The theory is simple, according to political analyst Keith Nahigian. “Ballot questions help to get more independent expenditures for ‘get out the vote’ campaigns,” he told The Epoch Times.
In Arizona, a campaign is underway for a ballot measure amending the state constitution to provide the “fundamental right” to abortion up to the point a baby could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks. …
In Nevada, a petition drive is in the works to include an amendment on abortion access. In Colorado and Maryland, voters will decide on abortion-related amendments in November.
“The Democrats’ strategy heading into this election cycle was to put these measures on the ballot in every big swing state,” Phoenix-based Republican strategist Marcus Dell’Artino told The Epoch Times.
Republicans are using the same tactic with election integrity — placing related measures on the ballot in nine states, including in Arizona, Florida, and Wisconsin. …
The movement to amend state constitutions to guarantee abortion access is a calculated strategy by the Democratic Party to rally voters to the November election.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee laid out the strategy in an April 5 memo.
The committee attributed a ballot measure to add abortion to the state constitution in Ohio for the “historic” turnout during an off-year election in November 2023. Voters in the state passed the measure 57 percent to 43 percent — a margin of 14 percent. President Trump won Ohio by 8 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020.
“When abortion is on the ballot, voters turn out to defend their rights,” the memo states. …
Capitalizing on Momentum
Momentum around the issue of access to abortion has been building since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, the seminal decision that, for decades, limited restrictions states can impose on the procedure.
Within 18 months of the Dobbs decision, seven states put abortion-related ballot questions before the public. In red and blue states alike, voters came down on the side of access to abortion. …
Democrats have hammered the issue for over two years while Republicans have been slow to admit that many of their own voters don’t favor a near-complete abortion ban.
In Virginia, Democrats took advantage of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s interest in a 15-week abortion ban to campaign on abortion access in 2023. They retook control of the state’s General Assembly, prompting prominent Democrats to make abortion a centerpiece of the 2024 campaign.
“The prospect of a national abortion ban is real,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in December 2023.
Ms. Whitmer launched the Fight Like Hell PAC in June 2023 to raise campaign funds for Democratic candidates who are “unapologetic in their fight for working people and their basic freedoms.” …
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who was narrowly elected in 2022, says her victory was aided by backlash over the Dobbs decision. She said the battle for abortion access will cause independents and pro-abortion Republicans to vote for Democrats again in 2024. …
Republicans, now tuned in to the issue, are treading lightly.
President Trump said on April 10 that the Arizona Supreme Court decision “needs to be straightened out.” …
Arizona Republican Kari Lake, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, said the court’s decision was “out of line with where the people of the state are.” …
Election Integrity
Republicans have chosen election integrity as a theme for 2024 and have lined up ballot initiatives to match. …
Voters in nine states, including four swing states, will decide on questions related to election integrity in November.
Wisconsin voters, who decided on April 2 to bar the use of private donations to fund election operations, will vote in November on a constitutional amendment stipulating that only U.S. citizens may vote. Voters in Idaho and Kentucky will both weigh banning noncitizens from voting.
Florida voters will consider a referendum to prevent candidates from receiving public campaign financing if they agree to spending limits.
Arizona voters will decide on a legislative referendum that requires partisan primary elections and bars the use of primaries in which the top two or top four candidates advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. …
In Nevada, voters will consider the opposite in a question posed by Democrats. Silver State voters will decide whether to adopt a nonpartisan “top-five” system for primary elections and to allow ranked-choice voting for general elections.
Issue Ownership
Ballot measures in national elections may be most useful in defining the stakes of the race by keeping hot-button issues in the public’s view.
“You can’t make people think anything, but you can make them think about things,” said Nicholas Higgins, a political science professor at Northern Greenville University. Political parties tend to put social issues on the ballot in part to force attention to matters in which they have some advantage. …
“Biden, and therefore Democrats generally, are suffering from an enthusiasm deficit,” said Donald Nieman, professor of political science at Binghamton University.
“Ballot measures on abortion and marijuana legalization will energize core Democratic constituencies … which could be a game changer,” he told The Epoch Times. …
What do you think of these ballot initiatives and this strategy? Share your thoughts and prayers below.
(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Photo Credit: mstahlphoto/Getty Images Signature via Canva Pro)