Abortion Remains Central to This Year's Most Important Legislative Contests

Abortion Remains Central to This Year’s Most Important Legislative Contests: The norm these days is for legislatures to be run by large or even veto-proof majorities. That’s not the case in Virginia. It’s one of only two states where legislative control is divided between the parties. Republicans are hopeful that in November they can erase the Democrats’ two-seat majority in the Virginia Senate, which would give them control of the entire state government. Democrats, by contrast, have their hearts set on erasing the GOP’s equally narrow majority in the state House, which has changed hands in both of the two previous election cycles.

Democrats believe their chances will be fueled by the abortion issue. The Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which ended the federal right to abortion, helped dampen Republican performance during the midterms last year. At the legislative level, Democrats took four legislative chambers, while the GOP gained none. Since Virginia holds its legislative contests in odd-numbered years, voters there haven’t had an equal chance, until now, to voice their displeasure. “Abortion rights is absolutely critical to Democratic efforts in these elections,” says Larry Sabato, who directs the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “The anger has not faded, especially among Democratic and independent women and those under age 30.”

Democrats have made abortion central to an ad campaign launched last month in 14 key districts. They never tire of pointing out that Virginia is the only Southern state that has not restricted or banned abortions. That would no longer be the case if Republicans take control in Richmond. “I will fight to safeguard and defend reproductive rights and will vote against any abortion bans,” Michael Feggans, a candidate for the state House, states at the top of his campaign website’s “priorities” page.

Republicans are countering by claiming that Feggans and other Democrats support abortion on demand until birth (which Feggans and others deny). GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Republican legislative candidates have unified behind an abortion ban at 15 weeks, with some exceptions, which they have framed as a reasonable proposal. But they may be playing into Democrats’ hands by affirming that they will, indeed, take action on an issue that generally cuts against them.




https://www.governing.com/politics/abortion-remains-central-to-this-years-most-important-legislative-contests