CHICAGO — Democrat Amanda Taylor decided to get “off the couch” and run for the Missouri General Assembly after state lawmakers passed one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans.
Campaigning in a deep-red district, Taylor says she’s heard voters from across the political spectrum express support for a measure on the November ballot that would reverse the ban and enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
“They’re gonna show up to vote against that abortion ban. And they’ll show up to vote for Kamala, and other women on the ballot as well,” Taylor said Tuesday, as she stopped to sign a banner supporting Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention.
Democrats are counting on it. The central role of reproductive rights in the party’s political playbook is on full display at the convention, from the giant inflatable IUD set up by a contraceptive-rights group a few blocks from the convention site to the mobile health clinic offering free medication abortions to the prime-time speeches given by women who have been hurt by state-level abortion bans.
New research by EMILYs List, which backs female candidates who support abortion rights and has endorsed Harris, suggests that abortion resonates strongly with women voters, particularly those younger than 45.
The report, compiled by Women Vote, the independent expenditure arm of EMILYs List, looked at five battleground states: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The survey found that support for abortion access is the top reason voters in all demographic groups back Harris.
The group also found that Harris has erased the “enthusiasm gap” that Democrats faced before President Joe Biden declared last month that he would not seek reelection.
The 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and paved the way for states to enact restrictions on abortion, has reshaped the political landscape in ways that are just now becoming evident, said EMILYs List President Jessica Mackler.
“The research that we have today shows that women are primed to deliver a win for Kamala Harris,’’ Mackler told reporters at a briefing on the report Tuesday.
A CBS/You Gov poll conducted last week found 56 percent of women favor Harris while 54 percent of men support Republican nominee Donald Trump. In a close election, women could tip the balance for Harris, Democrats say.
Reproductive rights have become such a potent political issue for Democrats that “even the dudes are talking about abortion,’’ said Melissa Williams, executive director of Women Vote.
Rep. Lauren Underwood, a Democrat who represents a suburban and rural district in northern Illinois, recalled being with Harris the day the Dobbs decision came out.
“The whole world changed and we knew we had to get to work,’’ Underwood said at a meeting of the DNC’s women’s caucus Tuesday morning. “When 1 in 3 women are living in a state that has a partial or total abortion ban, it takes all of us. I know that with the power and the strength of women in this group, the power and the strength of our voices, as leaders, we will not only win this election, but we will win back our freedom.”
But abortion isn’t the only issue fueling the gender gap and firing up Democrats.
Trump’s derogatory remarks about women, as well as a comment by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, mocking “childless cat ladies” has motivated Democrats.
“I’m a childless dog lady,’’ said Julie Pierce, a retiree and a first-time Democratic delegate from Georgia who wore a shirt that said “Madame President 2024.”
“Is JD Vance going to tell me I’m not worth anything? It’s like he’s saying, ‘Little lady, you don’t need to worry your pretty little head…’
“Well, I’ve lived through that and I’m not doing it again,” she said.
Expressions of female empowerment were evident throughout the convention.
“I am honored to be here with the women who get…shit done,” Elizabeth H. Shuler, the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO, told delegates at the women’s caucus. “Because we’re the backbone of this party.”
Vendors sold shirts emblazoned with the message “Trust Democratic Women.” Biden’s daughter, Ashley Biden, called the president the “OG girl dad,” when she introduced him on the convention’s main stage Monday night.
And women’s struggle for equal rights and the weight of history was on the minds of several speakers at the convention. Former first lady and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who came tantalizingly close to breaking the nation’s highest glass ceiling in her presidential run in 2016, invoked the trailblazers who came before her, from Shirley Chisholm, the Brooklyn, N.Y., congresswoman who ran for president in 1972, to Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated for vice president, in 1984.
“The story of my life and the history of our country is that progress is possible. But not guaranteed,’’ Clinton said. “We have to fight for it. And never, ever give up. There is always a choice. Do we push forward or pull back? Come together as ‘We The People’ or split into us versus them?”
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