Democrats had plenty of good news to celebrate in Tuesday\u2019s off-year elections and more evidence that they can win races centered on the national debate over abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abortion rights supporters won<\/strong> an Ohio ballot measure and the Democratic governor of beet-red Kentucky<\/strong> held onto his office by campaigning on reproductive rights and painting his opponent as extremist. A Democrat won an open seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court<\/strong> after campaigning on his pledge to uphold abortion rights. And Democrats took full control of the Virginia statehouse<\/strong>, blocking Republicans from being able to pass new abortion restrictions and delivering a defeat to Gov. Glenn Youngkin that may douse any buzz about a late entry<\/strong> into the GOP presidential primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The victories won\u2019t be enough to make Democrats feel secure heading into next year\u2019s presidential election. The off-year elections have major implications in all of those states and provide a snapshot of American politics heading into 2024. But two big names \u2014 Joe Biden and Donald Trump \u2014 weren\u2019t on the ballot this time. How Americans view them will be a huge factor in shaping next year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some key results from Tuesday\u2019s voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ABORTION REMAINS POTENT FOR DEMOCRATS<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats notched two early wins Tuesday night in Kentucky and Ohio, states that voted for Trump in 2020. In both states, abortion was the main campaign issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was reelected in a state that Trump<\/strong> had won by 26 percentage points. Beshear had criticized the abortion views of his Republican challenger, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, in debates and television ads. One Beshear ad<\/strong> featured a woman who miscarried after being raped by her stepfather at age 12 expressing disbelief at Cameron\u2019s opposition to abortion in cases of rape and incest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Ohio, a ballot measure preserving abortion rights passed<\/strong> in a state that Trump won by eight percentage points in 2020. Republicans had already tried to derail the measure<\/strong> by calling an unusual August referendum to make it harder to pass ballot measures, an initiative that was roundly rejected by Ohio voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later Tuesday, Dan McCaffery won an open seat on Pennsylvania\u2019s Supreme Court after positioning himself as a defender of abortion rights<\/strong>. And in Virginia, Democrats held the state Senate and flipped control of the Virginia House of Delegates from the GOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The outcomes suggest a transformed political landscape since a conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal right to an abortion last year<\/strong>. Abortion rights measures have passed in a plethora<\/strong> of states<\/strong> as some other Republican-run states have instituted new bans on the procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abortion rights may not be a potent enough issue to swing an election on its own. Several GOP governors who supported new bans cruised to reelection last year, including Ohio\u2019s Mike DeWine, Florida\u2019s Ron DeSantis and Texas\u2019 Greg Abbott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But abortion was the key issue across the country on Tuesday. And that should worry Republicans in competitive races next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GOOD NIGHT FOR DEMOCRATS, BUT MAYBE NOT FOR 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a good night for Democrats following a series of wins in special elections and comes after a stronger performance in last year\u2019s midterms, which are usually crushing for the party in power in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But none of the races were an up-or-down decision on the incumbent president, Biden. And none featured Trump on the ballot or his ability to turbocharge turnout of infrequent voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats have performed well in recent special elections and did better than expected in 2022<\/strong>. It increasingly seems like the party starts from a position of strength. But it\u2019s not clear that translates to its 80-year-old president, who faces widespread skepticism about his job performance<\/strong> and whether he is too old to serve a second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll have to wait until 2024 to see how Biden fares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n YOUNGKIN FALLS SHORT<\/p>\n\n\n\n Glenn Youngkin burst on the political scene in 2021, winning an upset victory to become the Republican governor of Virginia, a state Biden won handily the previous year. Putting a moderate, suburban dad spin on modern Republicanism, Youngkin generated buzz that he could even make a late, surprise entry into the GOP presidential primary after this month\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, Youngkin said he would focus on the 2023 legislative elections and winning full Republican control over Virginia government. Things did not go the way he hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Youngkin raised tens of millions of dollars for Republicans to defend their majority in Virginia\u2019s House of Delegates and win control of the Senate, which Democrats narrowly held in 2021. Among the things the legislature could do with that majority, he said, was pass a 15-week abortion ban he favored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Youngkin didn\u2019t really have a path forward in the presidential primary \u2014 his window to get on the ballot has already closed in some states. Virginia has an unusual single-term limit for governors, making Youngkin\u2019s political future even more of a question. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever he does, he\u2019ll have to explain 2023. And he\u2019ll face unified Democratic control of the statehouse for the rest of his term. <\/p>\n\n\n\n DEMOCRATS\u2019 HEARTBREAK HOTEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a good night for Democrats, but it could only go so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The party invested heavily in an unlikely place: Mississippi, where Brandon Presley, best known as Elvis Presley\u2019s second cousin, was challenging Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The party hoped that Presley\u2019s celebrity and political skills, coupled with the change in a centuries-old provision<\/strong>originally designed to keep Black candidates from winning statewide races, could spell an unlikely victory. But it was not to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reeves won the race. There are limited lessons to draw from a party falling short in a state its 2020 presidential candidate lost by 17 points, except one of the oldest \u2014 you can\u2019t win \u2019em all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n HISTORIC FIRSTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n Political candidates broke barriers in a handful of wins Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former Biden White House aide Gabe Amo will become the first Black member of Congress from Rhode Island after winning the special election in that state\u2019s first congressional district. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The son of West African immigrants, Amo emerged from a 12-candidate September primary to succeed retiring Rep. David Cicilline. On Tuesday, Amo defeated Republican Gerry Leonard, a Marine veteran, in the heavily Democratic district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Philadelphia will have its first female mayor after Democrat Cherelle Parker defeated Republican David Oh in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Democrats had plenty of good news to celebrate in Tuesday\u2019s off-year elections and more evidence that they can win races centered on the national debate over abortion. Abortion rights supporters won an Ohio ballot measure and the Democratic governor of beet-red Kentucky held onto his office by campaigning on reproductive rights and painting his opponent as extremist. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":39734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,12],"tags":[6493,10956,4899,9951,3959,8348,5178,6573,10387,7599,9331,6693,10000,10507,9662,11399,5799,913,6576,10102,9309,911,9334,746,12210,5321,3577,8478,2264,9222,5910,2471,3960,10634,11743,5331,9683,9772,9534,11973,745,6574,5844,6027,5424,3805,11377,1776,6200,5762,7342,7400,6944,6575,13301,12373,8664,8501,1825,5355,9262,10885,9268,2354,6571,2982,5273,594],"class_list":["post-39733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-fitness","category-world-news","tag-abortion","tag-abortion-rights","tag-african","tag-age","tag-andy-beshear","tag-ban","tag-biden","tag-black","tag-campaign","tag-celebrity","tag-city","tag-congress","tag-conservative","tag-court","tag-dad","tag-debate","tag-democrat","tag-democratic","tag-democrats","tag-desantis","tag-dollars","tag-election","tag-elvis-presley","tag-feel","tag-female","tag-florida","tag-future","tag-gop","tag-government","tag-immigrants","tag-initiative","tag-joe-biden","tag-kentucky","tag-lost","tag-majority","tag-mayor","tag-millions","tag-mississippi","tag-ohio","tag-one","tag-painting","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-pledge","tag-politics","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-presidential-election","tag-race","tag-rape","tag-raped","tag-referendum","tag-republican","tag-republicans","tag-results","tag-rhode-island","tag-ron-desantis","tag-senate","tag-supreme-court","tag-texas","tag-united-states","tag-victory","tag-virginia","tag-washington","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-woman","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39735,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39733\/revisions\/39735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}