Activists fear Democrats’ efforts to ride the coattails of abortion ballot measures put their passage at risk.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about Florida’s new six-week abortion ban during an event at the Prime Osborn Convention Center on May 1 in Jacksonville, Florida. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
“We haven’t won or beat back a single one of these ballot measures without significant independent and Republican support,” said Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All. “We spent a lot of last year talking to candidates directly saying, ‘Don’t put things on the ballot just to enhance voter turnout for Dems.’ That’s not how this works.”
“The message that polls the best, the message that, when we’re collecting signatures, people respond to, is that Nebraskans should have the freedom to get the care that they need, with compassion and privacy, and without any kind of political interference at all,” said Taylor Givens-Dunn, a leader of the state’s Protect our Rights coalition working to overturn the state’s 12-week ban via ballot initiative. “We want to be clear that this is about people, not politicians.
Yet there remains an inherent tension between Democrats and ballot measure coalitions. Both want to use abortion to motivate people to the polls, and abortion-rights advocates acknowledge that ballot measures alone, without a Democratic president and Congress, can’t protect access to the procedure. But as ballot measure campaigns work to appeal to voters across the political spectrum, they fear Democrats will make the referendums appear too partisan, and ultimately sink their chances.
“It’s obvious that the reason why there are pro-abortion ballot initiatives is to prop up the Biden campaign,” said Kristi Hamrick, the chief policy strategist with Students for Life of America, a groupin several states. “I’m not saying they’re cooperating illegally, but they’re all singing from the same song sheet.”
“We have Republicans out in rural areas circulating the petition and getting signatures for us. We have independents who are appalled by the taking away of abortion access and rights here in the state that are lining up to support the campaign,” she said. “And of course there is Democratic support for it, but we do not see it as a partisan campaign.”
Heather Williams, the president of the DLCC, said that the ballot initiatives in places like Arizona have a statewide strategy that focuses on big cities, while state lawmaker campaigns are focused on districts that may not get as much outreach.
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