Kamala Harris Needs To Call Out Ballot Attacks
The VP should explain what 'back to the states' really means in the presidential debate
After months of work and hundreds of thousands of signatures, Missourians may not get to vote on abortion rights after all. On Friday, a judge—who just so happens to be Rush Limbaugh’s cousin—ruled that the pro-choice measure slated for November’s ballot was invalid. This comes just a few days after Florida Republicans launched a ‘fraud’ investigation into 36,000 already-verified signatures in support of Amendment 4, with police showing up to voters’ homes to question them.
Arkansas voters lost the chance to have a say on abortion rights two weeks ago, when GOP leaders forced the issue off the ballot using a paperwork technicality. And today, the same conservative legal group that stopped Missouri voters from weighing in on abortion will make a similar case in front of Nebraska’s Supreme Court.
This is what Republicans mean when they say abortion should be left up to the states: Not that voters should get to decide, but that GOP-led legislatures and judges should feel free to use every dirty trick in the book to make sure abortion stays banned. Republicans like democracy in their talking points, not on their ballots.
And that’s exactly what Vice President Kamala Harris should remind voters of at the presidential debate tomorrow, when Donald Trump inevitably claims that abortion is a states issue. In addition to pointing out that the disgraced former president would sign a national ban and enforce the Comstock Act, Harris has an opportunity to tie Trump to the avalanche of outrageous attacks on democracy.
Whether it’s Ohio’s top election official colluding with anti-abortion groups to draft a biased ballot summary, texts sent to Missouri voters claiming that pro-choice petitioners were trying to steal their identities, or anti-abortion activists pressuring South Dakota voters to rescind their support for a pro-choice petition while impersonating the secretary of state’s office—if Trump wants to brag he ‘gave abortion back to the states,’ let’s remind voters what that really means.
Republicans know that when voters have a say on abortion rights, abortion rights wins. And so they’ll do anything they can to keep voters as far away from abortion as possible—even if it means dismantling democracy in the process. It’s necessary to make that crystal clear to voters. Because while Harris has a massive advantage over Trump on abortion rights, his strategy of flip-flopping and feigning moderation has been working.
A recent poll from Navigator found that while battleground state voters understood that a Trump presidency would bring a bevy of conservative attacks with it, abortion rights was the one issue voters weren’t so sure would be on the line. Other polls show that voters don’t necessarily link Trump to attacks on abortion rights or blame him for the end of Roe. That’s because he’s been consistently inconsistent—confusing voters about where he stands, and relying on mainstream media coverage to further muddy the waters.
Harris has the chance tomorrow to remind Americans that the rhetoric doesn’t match the reality: It’s easy for Trump to punt abortion to the states when he knows that Republicans are making it impossible for voters to weigh in. And no matter what Trump says about abortion—or pretends to believe—it doesn’t change the fact that he’s enabled country-wide attacks that not only strip voters of their right to abortion, but their right to have a say.
Yes! and back to the states means mini dictators like DeSatan running rough shod over our rights and creating enormous chaos and misery. I hope she takes this opportunity to say 'elect good people at all levels.'
I think she's going to hammer on Dobbs hard. I hope so.