Amy Walter/Cook Political Report:
Can Democrats Count on Abortion Ballot Measures To Swing Key States in 2024?
The same Republican strategist I spoke with earlier agreed that Republicans can’t hide from this issue, but also argues that both their messaging and their messengers need to be better.
However, Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who was also involved in some of the 2023 Virginia legislative races, argues that “Republicans don’t have a messaging problem on abortion. They have a problem-problem on abortion.” Namely, after identifying Republicans as anti-abortion for the last few decades, voters are skeptical that they can trust them to be ‘reasonable’ on this issue.
Democratic strategist Joey Teitelbaum with GSG, a veteran of the Kansas and Ohio abortion fights, agrees, telling me that “as long as we [Democrats] are centering abortion in the conversation, they [voters] know that Democrats are on abortion rights’ side.”
“We don’t know the precise impact these [initiatives] will have on turnout in 2024,” Teitelbaum told me. “But what we do know is that there is energy on the side of abortion rights.”
