Nathan News

EAGAN, Minnesota — Before dozens of volunteers fanned out in the Twin Cities suburbs to knock on voters’ doors on a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, Rep. Angie Craig, Democrat of Minnesota, brought them together in a campaign office in a mall here to make sure they remembered a specific message.

“As you go through every door, what I want you to remember is that if Tyler Kistner is your congressman, it’s someone who said he’s 100% pro-life,” Ms Craig said, referring to her Republican opponent. “Today, residents of this neighborhood have never had a more distinct choice. We are the party – and I am a congressman – that will be the wall to protect your reproductive rights, to protect your privacy, to protect your freedoms.

In competitive constituencies across the country like Ms. Craig’s, Democrats in tough re-election races are leaning heavily on preserving abortion rights as a closing argument for their bottom-up attempts to retain their seats in a year when the majority of their party is in danger.

Armed with polling data that shows the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to abortion moved independent voters in their direction, they refocused their campaigns around the issue in the crucial final weeks before the election. .

The strategy is built around the hope that in the handful of close races that will determine control of the House, the demise of abortion rights has energized independent voters and conservative-leaning women so intensely that it could allow otherwise vulnerable Democrats to win victories that previously seemed out of reach.

Almost all of the House Democrats’ super PAC-funded ads focus on reproductive rights, including one that dramatizes the consequences of a nationwide ban on abortion, featuring police officers handcuffing doctors, nurses and nurses. patients who have requested or provided “health services that have been legal for nearly 50 years. Panel discussions hosted by vulnerable incumbents flanked by OB/GYNs and elaborate events rolling out mentions of Planned Parenthood abound.

It’s a rare opportunity for Democrats to go on the offensive in a campaign cycle that was initially expected to inflict heavy losses on their party, and in which their majority is still threatened by rising inflation, concerns about crime and President Biden’s declining approval ratings. In recent weeks, however, internal polls have shown the threat of losing access to abortion has energized some abortion-rights supporters who might not normally vote in a midterm election. and swayed independents toward Democratic candidates, potentially offering the party a chance to stem its losses.

Whether that issue alone can turn the tide for Democrats remains to be seen. They worked hard to find ways to remind voters of the key climate, health and tax measure passed in August against the United Republican Opposition, which included a grassroots measure to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

And Ms Craig’s campaign volunteers were armed with pamphlets trumpeting the endorsement of a local county sheriff that prominently featured a large photo of the two – a nod to the potential power of the crime issue, which Republicans tried to arm against Democrats in the election. The day is approaching.

But the abortion decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, Ms Craig said of a pepperoni pizza and beer between campaign stops at a Woodbury brewery, “changes everything”.

When she had walked past Sam’s Club that morning, she said, gasoline was selling for $3.44 – a price she admitted was “painful”.

“But when you’re talking about taking away someone’s personal rights and the government is interfering with your health care decisions or your marriage decisions, or your decision whether or not to use birth control? It’s a whole other level.

Many of her constituents, she said, “didn’t like masks. They didn’t like vaccination mandates, and they certainly don’t want a politician in the doctor’s office with them.

Vulnerable Democrats across the country are trying similar messages. In central Virginia, Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s first campaign ad featured an attack on her Republican opponent, Yesli Vega, calling it “too extreme for Virginia,” citing Ms. Vega’s support for the ban on abortions.

In Pennsylvania, Rep. Susan Wild, who is facing a rematch against Republican industry executive Lisa Scheller, recently criticized her opponent’s stance on abortion as government overreach.

“It’s not the role of Lisa Scheller – or anyone in government – to tell you what you can do with your body,” Ms Wild says in an advertisement.

And in east-central Michigan, Rep. Dan Kildee, facing his first serious re-election challenge since being elected a decade ago, proudly presents himself as “the only pro-choice candidate in this race”.

Mr Kildee said in an interview that he had “lost count” of the number of Republicans who had told him they would not support candidates who oppose abortion rights in November.

“A very large percentage of people in Michigan and in my district think the decision should be made by a woman in the face of choice, not someone in government,” he continued. “And that seems to be the driving sentiment – as opposed to a real debate about the effectiveness of abortion as a choice. It’s really about who should make the choice.

Republicans, confident voters will focus more on inflation and public safety than abortion rights, have largely left the question unanswered. Many have sought to avoid the topic altogether, and in some cases entering the general election cycle have edited or deleted abortion sections on their websites used to differentiate themselves in crowded Republican primaries.

Mr Kildee’s opponent Paul Junge told a 2020 Republican primary debate that Roe v Wade had extended ‘invented rights’ to women and was ‘pro-life’ and ‘supports life at any time”. The House Democrats’ super PAC highlighted the comments in an ad that included an OB/GYN.

Ms Craig’s opponent, Mr Kistner, who served nine years as an officer in the Marine Corps and lost to Ms Craig by two percentage points in 2020, called himself ‘100% pro-life’ on her campaign website during her last primary cycle, a descriptor to which Ms Craig clung. Mr Kistner said he would support abortion if the mother’s life was in danger and in cases of rape and incest, and that the matter should be left to the states to decide.

During her first contest, Ms Scheller said she would be “open” to supporting federal legislation that would make it a criminal offense for a doctor to perform an abortion in the presence of a detectable heartbeat. But she added that she would support abortion in cases of incest and rape. (That hasn’t stopped Democrats from running ads accusing Ms. Scheller of wanting to criminalize abortion “even in cases of rape and incest.”)

Democrats have even extended attacks on Republicans who broadly support abortion rights. A carefully crafted TV ad against George Logan, a Republican and former Connecticut state senator who is running against Rep. Jahana Hayes, intones that he “refused to support Roe v. Wade” and would vote for a party leader in the House that would push for a national ban on abortion.

Mr. Logan is one of the few Republicans running for Congress across the country who have explicitly said they do not support a nationwide ban.

“I think it should be up to the states,” he said after a rally in New Britain organized by the Republican National Committee, according to The Connecticut Mirror. “Right here in Connecticut, we’ve codified a woman’s right to choose. That’s what I support.