Democrats, abortion rights win big in off-year state elections

"Democrats had plenty of good news to celebrate in Tuesday's off-year election and more evidence that they can win races centered on the national debate over abortion," The Associated Press reported.

Kyle Klondike at the nonpartisan University of Virginia's Sabato Crystal Ball group said he and other political prognosticators were watching six races on Tuesday — gubernatorial races in Kentucky and Mississippi, control of the Virginia House and Senate, the constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights in Ohio and a Pennsylvania Supreme Court race — and Democrats won everything but the Mississippi race, where incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves (R) held off a strong challenge from Democrat Brandon Presley.

In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) won reelection over GOP challenger Daniel Cameron, the Donald Trump–endorsed state attorney general. Beshear had heavily criticized Cameron's hardline abortion views, including in one memorable ad featuring a woman who became pregnant when she was raped by her stepfather at age 12.

Ohio voters amended their constitution to protect an individual's right to "make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions" up to the point of fetal viability, and even then if a doctor determines the "life or health" of the woman is at risk. Ohio is now the seventh state where voters have chosen to protect abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Voters in the state rejected a GOP measure in August that would have made it more difficult to pass this amendment. Ohio voters also approved legalizing recreational marijuana for people 21 and over.

In Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) had campaigned heavily to flip the State Senate to Republican control, Democrats kept the Senate and won the Virginia House of Delegates, giving them full control of the legislature for the final two years of Youngkin's term. New Jersey voters expanded the Democrats' legislative majority. Voters in Pennsylvania elevated Superior Court Judge Dan McCaffery to the state Supreme Court, filling an empty seat and restoring the Democrats' 5-2 majority. McCaffery, who beat Republican judge Carolyn Carluccio, had campaigned as a defender of abortion rights.