How a $500 million gamble by Kamala Harris and the Democrats may have cost them the 2024 election
For Kamala Harris and the Democrats, it was a $500 million losing bet.
For Kamala Harris and the Democrats, it was a $500 million losing bet.
They felt the threat Donald Trump posed to abortion rights was worth that massive a spend on a nationwide campaign of TV, streaming and social media ads and warnings.
But based on Tuesdays results, the half-a-billion-dollar gamble now looks like money out the window.
Americans handed Trump and many Republicans in Congress decisive victories on Tuesday despite Democrats belief that abortion would be the galvanizing issue for people heading to the polls.
Protecting reproductive freedom has been a rallying cry for Democrats since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
It ended the national right to an abortion and handed the issue back to states.
It was one of the top issues in some key states in the 2022 midterms and helped Democrats avoid a red wave, but it delivered very mixed results this year.
Protesters marching in Arizona after the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade. A majority of voters in the state chose Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election while the state also passed an amendment to protect abortion
In the end, exit polling shows it was the third most important issue behind democracy and the economy with just 14 percent of respondents calling it the most important issue.
While Kamala Harris was seen as better at handling the issue and 65 percent of voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, it did not translate to votes and wins for Democrats in key races.
The vice president campaigned heavily on the issue across the country. Her vow to protect reproductive freedom received some of the biggest applause at her events.
She vowed she would sign a law to protect abortion as president if Congress passed one and warned Trump would support a national abortion ban if elected, despite his denials that he would.
Trump while he has previously signaled support for a national ban claimed he would leave the issue to states if he received a second term.
Its very clear Donald Trump attempted to muddle his message on abortion and did not suffer the same branding issue on that issue that maybe other Republicans have in the past, said Democratic strategist Joel Payne.
Voters dont trust and dont like Republicans on abortion period, Payne said. Also, voters have proven they will still vote for Republicans despite that.
There were several instances where this played out on full display Tuesday.
Donald Trump officially flipped the state of Arizona on Saturday to sweep all seven swing states in the 2024 presidential election.
Arizona voters also passed an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in the states constitution with more than 60 percent support.
Arizona was one of 10 states where abortion rights were directly on the ballot on Tuesday.
In seven out of 10 of those states, voters chose to protect abortion rights, signaling large swaths of voters overall support access to abortion.
Even in deep-red states such as Missouri and Montana, where Trump and Republicans won, voters moved to protect abortion rights. The Missouri ballot measure passed with more than 51 percent of support. In Montana, a ballot initiative received more than 57 percent.
Even in Florida where the amendment to protect abortion failed to meet the states necessary 60-percent threshold, some 57 percent of voters supported it while still electing Trump by double digits at 56 percent.
Some strategists have since suggested that ballot initiatives could have, perhaps, even given voters a permission structure to feel comfortable voting for Republicans who might oppose abortion access because they were also able to vote directly on the issue.
Anti-abortion activists saw it differently. They argued that Democrats fearmongering on the issue did not work as well as it not being the galvanizing issue Democrats thought.
This election proves that abortion was not the silver bullet Democrats thought it would be, said Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser.
Even after Democrats put half a billion dollars behind abortion TV ads in this election, they still lost the presidency, the Senate and potentially the House, she said. The reason? Their extreme abortion agenda is out of step with Americans.
She claimed most Americans support early, reasonable limits on abortion.
But even as voters chose to protect abortion rights with ballot measures in seven out of 10 states this cycle and in multiple elections since Roe fell, advocates are sounding the alarms on the looming Trump administration.
The Center for Reproductive Rights has warned the Trump White House could move to block the mailing of abortion pills, making it harder to get access even in states where abortion is legal.
The group vowed to fight any effort to pass a national abortion ban and efforts to restrict women from crossing state lines to obtain an abortion.
We will scrutinize every action of the White House and federal agencies, amass the factual and legal record to counter agency actions, and work to stop harmful policies from going into effect, said President and CEO Nancy Northup.
If they do, we will take them to court, she added.
