'A galvanizing moment': The fight for abortion rights goes local in state elections

When Kristen McDonald Rivet got to the county courthouse in Midland, Michigan, days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she was floored by the size of the crowd that arrived to rally for abortion rights in the fairly conservative enclave near Saginaw.

Just a month earlier, after a leaked opinion foreshadowed what the court would decide, dozens joined a similar rally at the same place. This time, there were more than 500.

“It was young women, older women, men holding up signs, people that are not — they're not the people that you usually see at these things,” said Rivet, a mother of six and a Democrat running for state senate. “These were everyday people who are just outraged.”

In Michigan, as elsewhere across the country, the decision about who gets to have an abortion now rests with state officials after the Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion rights, foisting them onto the front lines of an intensifying battle. Since the ruling, governors, attorneys general and state legislators have taken sides, with some passing measures protecting abortion access and others enacting abortion bans and pledging further abortion restrictions.

On the campaign trail, Democratic political organizations said the passion has translated into more dollars and more candidates for state office.

The States Project, which backs Democratic candidates, said 100 new donor networks signed up after the ruling overturning Roe. Run For Something, which recruits and trains Democratic candidates for local and state offices, said 2,000 prospective recruits expressed interest in running for office since the opinion leaked in May. Cofounder and co-executive director Amanda Litman said it’s too soon to predict the extent of the impact on elections come November, but she is optimistic.

“This is really a galvanizing moment,” Litman said. “Hopefully that will translate into voting behavior.”

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In the meantime, the heated debate over abortion rights has shifted from the steps of the Supreme Court to the stoops of state capitols, court houses, and even residences of voters across the country.

Here’s how four candidates view the impact of the ruling, from the state senate candidate in Michigan to a Republican incumbent in Colorado, and from a first-time candidate in suburban San Antonio to a lawyer in Miami who is so angry a fellow Democrat supported an abortion ban that she pledged to unseat him herself.

Abortion fight spurs candidacy in Florida

Ashley Gantt was astounded.

The man who was supposed to be representing her — and more than 100,000 other residents in Miami and nearby suburbs — voted in February to impose a 15-week abortion ban in the state of Florida.

Rep. James Bush III is a Democrat and longtime incumbent who hasn’t faced a major challenge for re-election in years.

Gantt decided that was long enough. Within a month, she announced a bid to unseat him in the Florida House of Representatives.

“I decided that I wasn't just going to be angry. I was going to be angry and act,” Gantt told USA TODAY. “And I decided to challenge him.”

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She said Bush voted against women’s rights yet represents a district with large numbers of Black and Hispanic women. Gantt and Bush are both Black.

Gantt, a one-time public school teacher in Miami-Dade who is now a criminal defense attorney, acknowledges that taking on an elected official with a long track record is daunting. But she said concern over the Supreme Court ruling has given her campaign a boost.

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“I've gotten a lot more amplification from just people that know me, people that have met me throughout the course of this campaign saying, ‘Hey, this is who you need to vote for (instead of Bush),’” she said.

Bush did not respond to multiple requests for comment. When the Florida legislature passed a measure in 2020 requiring parental consent for minors seeking abortions, Bush said at the time that he had a moral obligation to vote for it, according to liberal-leaning news site Florida Phoenix. "I have to be on the side of God,” he said.

Gantt is one of more than 400 candidates who have drawn support from Run For Something. Litman said they are capitalizing on the Supreme Court's ruling to energize voters, particularly in places where abortion has been banned or access to the procedure is at risk.

She said it will take time for the consequences to emerge — for people who are pregnant or become pregnant and seek abortions to be denied the procedure, forcing them to give birth or find an alternative. As many as 75,000 women could find themselves in that position within the next year, according to one estimate.

“People who are experiencing pregnancy will suffer this summer,” Litman predicted. “Some of them will die, and it will be incumbent on the candidates and the people running for office and currently elected to... make it clear that these (deaths) could have been prevented had they had access to the health care they needed.”

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Gantt has been a fundraising juggernaut since she announced her candidacy in March, quickly matching the roughly $50,000 raised by Bush as of May 31, according to Florida Politics. She has also pulled in endorsements from Ruth’s List Florida, which promotes pro-abortion rights women candidates, and the statewide Planned Parenthood political action committee.

While inflation and gas prices are soaring, Gantt said abortion restrictions and bans will cost a lot in the long run. Researchers have estimated that hundreds of thousands of women will be pushed from the work force, making a significant dent in the nation’s economy.

“You're forcing people to have a child and it takes thousands of dollars in medical bills,” Gantt said. “We're not even talking about the life that you have to care for in regards to food, clothing, shelter … And when we talk about Black women, you're talking about the very real risk of death during childbirth.”

The maternal mortality rate for Black women was nearly three times the rate for non-Hispanic white women in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“When I am knocking on doors in the community, it now comes up as a topic,” Gantt said, noting that before, abortion had often been a sensitive subject to approach. These days, with reproductive rights in jeopardy, she said it’s “a conversation at the forefront.”

In Colorado, across country, Republicans focus on economy

Paul Lundeen said abortion is not what folks want to talk about when the Colorado state senator knocks on doors in his Colorado Springs-area district.

“The big issue that just keeps coming up — and I'm not leading people there or I wasn't leading people there as I was knocking doors, they were taking me there – is the quality of life, the affordability of life is getting out of hand,” he told USA TODAY in an interview.

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Lundeen’s experience mirrors what national Republican organizations say they are hearing.

“That's what voters are most concerned about,” said Andrew Romeo, spokesman for the Republican State Leadership Committee, the party’s organization focused on state legislatures.

He pointed to a Cygnal poll commissioned by the committee and taken the day after the Supreme Court ruling struck down national abortion rights. It found 53% of voters said inflation, the high cost of living or the economy in general were the most important issues to them, compared to 8% who said abortion was.

“We don't expect it to have a big impact,” Romeo told USA TODAY. “And it's not that people don't care about it or it's not an important issue. It's just that the economy is so important that it's outweighing it.”

The district Lundeen represents is mostly white and includes the U.S. Air Force Academy, according to census data reported by Ballotpedia.

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It is a key district for Republicans seeking to seize control of the Colorado senate from Democrats. Colorado is one of two states where Republicans are trying to flip legislative chambers this fall. The other is Minnesota. Nationwide, Republicans already have legislative majorities in 30 states.

Lundeen’s campaign web site notes that the Colorado Senate is just a few seats away from tipping in Republicans’ favor. (Democrats now have 20 of the 35 senate seats)

Lundeen, who has represented voters in the conservative Colorado Springs-area since 2015, first as a state representative and now senator, vanquished a primary challenge by a nearly 2-to-1 margin last month and is favored to win in November.

He and his wife of more than 30 years raised two children in Monument, Colorado, and he served on the state Board of Education before being elected to the legislature. Previously an entrepreneur, he founded companies involved in real estate development, marketing and learning centers.

Lundeen bills himself as a problem solver who wants to fight back against cancel culture and a “bloated and ever-growing state government“ while ensuring parental control over school choice and education.

“Personally, I am pro-life,” he said in an interview. “I acknowledge the concerns and the challenges that anyone who finds themselves in a crisis pregnancy must be cared for. I have deep concern for those individuals and care to protect them. And I also seek to acknowledge quite frankly, as Roe v. Wade did, the fact that there is the potential for another life as well.”

The Democrat running to unseat him, Arik Dougherty, sent a statement to USA TODAY saying he believes voters will turn out to support abortion-rights supporters. “There are many issues facing the people of Colorado, but to many voters, this is the only issue that matters,” Dougherty said, adding that if elected, he would continue to protect that right in Colorado.

Lundeen didn’t say if he would seek to outlaw abortion if he is re-elected and Republicans win control of the state senate. He noted Colorado state law currently protects abortion rights, and reiterated that voters’ focus is on the cost of living, from gas prices and utility bills to groceries.

“It truly is economy, economy, economy. What was Bill Clinton’s thing — ‘It's the economy, stupid.’ That's really what I am hearing from people.”

Texas Democratic candidate says abortion fight won't 'blow over'

In Texas, a law that went into effect last year banning abortion after cardiac activity is detected, typically at six weeks, pushed a suburban San Antonio mother to run for a seat in the Texas state house.

“This is not something that's going to blow over,” Becca Moyer DeFelice told USA TODAY in an interview.

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She said her campaign has seen an uptick in donations and interest since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Texas has a trigger law set to outlaw abortion 30 days after the decision. In the meantime, the state can enforce a 1925 law banning abortion, the Texas Supreme Court ruled earlier this month.

“Women are motivated in a way that we have not seen recently, and I think that we will see the results of the damaging ban in November,” DeFelice said.

Recent polling found the Supreme Court ruling has energized voters. Sixty-two percent of registered voters in a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll said they are more likely to vote this fall because of it. Among Democrats, it was 78%, compared to roughly 53% of Republicans and independents.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the party arm that focuses on state legislative races, has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations since the Supreme Court’s abortion opinion leaked in May.

“More people understand that the fate of Roe v. Wade is in the state — The federal government's not coming to save us,” DLCC President Jessica Post said in an interview. She noted that “every single majority-Democratic state legislature has taken action to protect or expand abortion rights.”

Democrats currently control 17 state legislatures, including in Washington, Oregon, California and New York, where abortion access is protected under state law.

“We feel like we have a very good story to tell about what happens when Democratic majorities come in and take the lead in state legislatures,” Post said.

Republicans currently control the Texas House of Representatives, 84 seats to 65.

DeFelice’s opponent, Republican state Rep. Steve Allison, coasted through his primary election with 84% of the vote. But that was in March, before the Supreme Court abortion ruling.

Allison, who opposes abortion and voted to ban the procedure in Texas except in medical emergencies, did not respond to requests for comment. He also cosponsored and helped pass a bill preventing mail-order delivery of abortion-inducing medication. "I believe every life is precious," Allison wrote in a Facebook post touting the actions last fall.

If she wins, DeFelice will be the first Asian American Democratic woman elected to the Texas House of Representatives. A small business consultant by trade, she calls herself an “everyday American mom” and has been a gun violence prevention advocate and worked with Texas legislators to pass mental health relief for farmers.

DeFelice, who has scooped up endorsements from abortion-rights groups Annie’s List and Planned Parenthood of Texas, said the district is “overwhelmingly pro-choice” with a plurality of women voters.

“Women are feeling angry and, you know, sad and betrayed by the people that were elected to serve, very specifically in this district,” she said. “The GOP has vastly underestimated women voters for decades and has taken for granted that women's anger will burn itself out. We are at the point where I think this is the moment where they're going to find out that this is not a passing phase.”

In Michigan, elsewhere, will backlash force moderation on abortion?

In Michigan, the mother of six running for a state Senate seat said serving in the state legislature was not something she dreamed of as a kid, but the divisive politics of the last six years drove her to mount a campaign.

A swing state in the 2020 presidential election, Michigan legislators held election fraud hearings featuring Rudy Giuliani and other witnesses spewing hours of baseless allegations. A scheme by Michigan Republicans to recruit a slate of illegitimate electors to support former President Donald Trump is now under federal investigation.

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Also in Michigan, a group of extremists mad about COVID restrictions was accused of plotting to kidnap the state’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. Two pleaded guilty, two were acquitted in April, and two others are awaiting re-trial.

“And then along comes the elimination of Roe v. Wade,” said Rivet, currently a city commissioner in Bay City, Michigan.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe, a Michigan law from 1931 making it a felony to provide an abortion in the state went into effect, though Whitmer is challenging the constitutionality of the ban and a court injunction is currently barring its enforcement.

Republicans control the state Senate and House of Representatives in Michigan, though by slim margins.

The States Project, a group focused on boosting Democratic “majority-making candidates,” is supporting Rivet and said Michigan is a prime target to flip to Democratic control. Simone Leiro, spokesperson for the organization, argued GOP-controlled state legislatures that have undermined democracy are also taking aim at women’s rights.

“It's the same disease with different symptoms,” Leiro told USA TODAY.

Rachel Rebouché, a professor and interim dean at Temple University Beasley School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruling constituted a “profound shift” of power to states, where the impacts of state officials criminalizing and restricting abortions are just beginning.

“It's not clear how… their policies will shift based on public opinion, based on backlash, based on the difficulty of implementing some laws,” said Rebouche, a specialist in reproductive health law.

“I have to think that you'd spend a lot of political goodwill in doing things that may not make sense. And so right now, it's a defensive posture. We're gonna do this, and we're gonna do that. But I do wonder, will some of these strategies backfire?”

In Michigan, Republican and Democratic state lawmakers have proposed dueling legislation to either increase or decrease access to abortion in the state.

Republican state Rep. Annette Glenn, who is vying for the chance to take on Rivet for a seat in the state Senate, said the Supreme Court ruling may have animated some voters in the district — a swath at the base of Saginaw Bay two hours north of Detroit. But she said it “hasn't even made a dent in voters' anger over skyrocketing inflation, illegal immigration, and crime.”

Glenn, a mother of five, believes “a prenatal human being's life should not be terminated except when doctors believe it's the only way to save the mother's life,” which mirrors the 1931 law. She believes conservative Democrats will back her over Rivet.

Rivet said she believes the choice to have an abortion should be between a woman and her doctor. “The government has no place in that decision,” she said.

She believes the ruling has fired up residents who didn’t think the right to make that decision would be stripped away.

“I kind of wish gas weren't over five bucks a gallon,” Rivet conceded. But, she added: “What I saw at that rally are voters that are now for the first time, single-issue voters and energized beyond belief. So this is absolutely going to have an impact in this race.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion in state elections: Democrats see more candidates, money