Key Democrats hoping to keep abortion access a central part of the 2024 campaign are looking to the 2004 playbook of an old Republican nemesis: Karl Rove.
Rove was the architect of ballot initiatives to ban gay marriage placed in swing states to boost turnout for George W. Bush. Now Democrats are pushing ballot measures and an array of other moves to try to capitalize on a backlash to last year’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which they say was instrumental in many of their wins in last year’s midterms.
“We should put the right to choose on every ballot across the country in 2024 – not just with the candidates we choose, but with referendum efforts to enshrine reproductive rights in states where right-wing politicians are stripping those rights away,” Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker told CNN.
With President Joe Biden expected to run for reelection and Democrats forecasting tough races for key Senate and House seats, several Democratic operatives say next year is the perfect moment to turn Rove’s wedge-issue strategy on its head and get swing voters excited about abortion rights – the same way an abortion rights ballot proposition in Michigan helped power a massive blue wave in the state last year.
The frustration with threats to abortion access hasn’t faded, Democrats – from Biden’s close advisers to organizers across the country – agree. Their proof is Tuesday’s blowout win by Democrats’ preferred candidate in Wisconsin. The state Supreme Court race came with high stakes for abortion access given the court is expected to decide the fate of the state’s 1849 ban, which had been dormant for decades but snapped back into place with last year’s US Supreme Court ruling.
“In 2024, voters will be deciding whether to elect people who want a national abortion ban,” said Ben Wikler, the Democratic Party…
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