The Group That's Changing the Abortion Rights Playbook and Winning Big - Families United for Freedom

[Demovictory9]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/15/abortion-rights-election-00066788


Freedom spent over $1.7 million in four of the six states with abortion ballot measures this cycle — Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Montana. (There were also ballot measures in the safe Democratic states of California and Vermont.) The group partnered with local grassroots organizations to protect abortion rights, providing them with polling and strategic advice. The group was driven by a simple thesis: When given the option, voters in red and purple states will support abortion rights at the polls — if the issue is divorced from partisan politics. On Election Day, that thesis proved to be mostly correct.

The initial test of whether ballot measures in defense of abortion rights could be more popular when put to the voters directly came in Kansas, a red state, in August, soon after Dobbs. Voters there weighed in on a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the state legislature to restrict abortion in the state. The amendment, which had been put on the ballot before the Supreme Court’s decision and timed to coincide with the primary elections in a deep-red state that no Democratic presidential candidate had carried since Lyndon Johnson, failed overwhelmingly.


In that campaign, FUF contributed $600,000 to the local group Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, which coordinated abortion-rights efforts in the campaign.

That initial win molded Families United for Freedom’s thinking and approach, Rachael Bedard, the group’s executive director, told POLITICO. “I think Kansas is this really important case study in a red state with lots of folks who self-identify as Republicans and independents showing up to vote,” she said. Those voters supported abortion rights far more than anticipated, Bedard said, because the modeling had not been adjusted to reflect how political attitudes on abortion rights had changed in the aftermath of Dobbs.

[niyad]

1. Thank you.

A most informative post

[usonian]

2. It's interesting that when you make it an up and down decision, rights win.

OTOH, BlueCheeseAgain posts:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=17379607

This isn't simply a women vs men issue. According to exit polls, a majority of Florida women voted for DeSantis this time, and a majority of Texas women voted for Abbott. We're not going to advance reproductive rights when things like that happen.

So, it seems to me that when people vote for candidates, not up and down propositions, their best interests can be overridden by "other" issues, including party, other hot-button issues, and so on.

In other words, what should have been a "single issue vote" was not in too many cases.

But candidates keep getting elected, taking stands against issues that are popular with voters.
Frustrating.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. Perhaps we need state-by-state amendments to ensure abortion rights.

[Demovictory9]

4. There in the works.. New jersey is next..

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. Thanks! It's infuriating that this piece-meal work is again necessary.