Democrats aim to win Virginia statehouse and pass abortion access rights in Ohio in off-year election
Democrats are aiming to grab control of Virginia’s legislature and pro-choice advocates are pushing an abortion rights measure in Ohio as voters go to the polls in the off-year elections.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a rare red-state Democrat, is also aiming to win reelection while Democrats are looking to elect a liberal state Supreme Court justice in swing-state Pennsylvania.
New Jersey voters are also casting ballots for state Assembly and Senate although Democrats are prohibitive favorites to keep control of both houses in the deep-blue state.
Overall, it’s shaping up to be a relatively quiet national election day with only a few closely watched votes and no congressional seats up for grabs.
Virginia is typically the marquee matchup of off-year elections because of its status as a swing state, albeit one that has trended strongly to Democrats in recent national elections.
The Old Dominion state is one of a handful of states with divided goverment with Gov. Glenn Youngkin in the governor’s mansion and Republicans holding the state assembly.
Democrats currently hold the state Senate.
Team Blue is favored to flip the lower House and hold the Senate although both races hinge on a handful of virtual tossup races.
In Ohio, abortion rights advocates hope to pass a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to choose. The measure is favored to pass especially after anti-abortion groups failed in a summer special election effort to keep it off the ballot.
It’s a test case for a Democratic strategy to use pro-choice ballot questions to juice turnout among young voters, women and suburban voters who overwhelmingly favor abortion rights.
Even in GOP-leaning states like Ohio and Kansas, abortion has proven to be a critical issue for Democrats particularly since the conservative-dominated Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
Closer to home, New Jersey voters are also going to the polls to elect new crop of legislators. Democrats comfortably control both houses in the Garden State, although Republicans hope for some upsets in South Jersey which has trended red in the Trump era.
Pennsylvania Democrats are hoping to elect Daniel McCaffery for a 10-year term on the battleground state’s influential Supreme Court. He would keep the liberal majority at 5-2 while a loss would put the court in a narrower 4-3 split and put the GOP in a position to flip the court in future elections.
In Kentucky, Beshear is facing a difficult reelection fight in a state that is now solidly Republican on both the state and national level.
He has won enviable approval ratings and is favored in polls to beat rising Republican star Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a protege of powerful Sen. Mitch McConnell.
But it would still be a remarkable achievement for a Democrat to win any statewide election in Kentucky, which voted for former President Donald Trump by a landslide 26% margin in 2020.
A somewhat similar scenario is playing out in Mississippi, where Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is seeking to turn aside a potent challenge from Brandon Presley, a distant cousin of Elvis.
Reeves is suffering from poor poll ratings but a Democratic win in deep-red Mississippi would be a major shocker.
