“Good News for Democratic Senators”: Tuesday’s Election Results Affirmed “Abortion Remains a Potent Issue That Will Help Democratic Candidates Next Year”

After “Democrats amassed big electoral wins around the country…with access to abortion front and center,” a wave of new reporting highlights how Tuesday’s election results affirmed “abortion remains a potent issue” and “showed it’s possible to cultivate a political brand that transcends partisanship” — “a piece of good news for Democratic senators.”

Here’s what they’re saying: 

Roll Call: Democrats see big wins in local elections, look to 2024
By Nathan L. Gonzales
November 8, 2023

• Democrats amassed big electoral wins around the country on Tuesday. From winning the marquee race for governor in Kentucky and a key ballot measure in Ohio to securing majorities in Virginia’s state legislature, Democrats prevailed, with access to abortion front and center. 

• Beshear’s victory is a piece of good news for Democratic senators
  
  
• Beshear, the son of former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, showed it’s possible to cultivate a political brand that transcends partisanship, and his fundraising advantage gave him the ability to cement that brand.

• Overall, Democrats outspent Republicans… As in 2022, the same dynamic could take place in key 2024 Senate races, in spite of GOP efforts to fix the problem of underfunded challengers by recruiting self-funders in several key states.

• Issue 1, which enshrines reproductive rights in the state constitution, passed by a wide margin, 57 percent to 43 percent, in a resounding victory for Democrats and the abortion rights movement.
  
  
• On the heels of previous victories on abortion rights referenda in Kansas and Michigan, the Ohio result will embolden Democrats to continue to run on the issue into the 2024 elections. 

Washington Post: The Early 202: After Tuesday, Senate Democrats feel boosted in red states
By Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer
November 9, 2023 

• Democrats say that Tuesday night’s election results, especially Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection, bode well for Democratic incumbents running for Senate in red states. Strong, unique candidates can still win over voters Democrats have lost in recent elections, they say, including middle-income, less-educated voters. 

• Senate Democrats point to Tuesday’s election results as proof that they are in a much better place than Republicans who are dealing with “Trump’s chaotic leadership, the divided House Republican conference and the Supreme Court’s abortion decision that have produced untold damage to the Republican Party,” our colleague Dan Balz writes. 

• A national abortion ban will be on the table if Republicans win control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. “All three of my opponents are for a national abortion ban, and they are out of step with the reality in my state,” [Sherrod] Brown said. 

Punchbowl News: Punchbowl News AM 
By Max Cohen and Jake Sherman
November 9, 2023 

• Abortion rights: Here’s a fact sheet compiled by the DSCC in the aftermath of big wins for Democrats on Tuesday. The document runs through the abortion rights stances of Republican Senate candidates in key battleground states.

• “As the 2023 elections showed, the Republican agenda of taking away women’s freedom to make their own medical decisions remains toxic with voters,” the memo reads.
  
  
• It’s the latest sign that Democrats are planning on centering abortion rights in 2024, following a playbook that proved successful in 2022.

The Hill: Senate Republicans say election results sound warning for 2024 
By Alexander Bolton 
November 9, 2023

• Republican senators battling to win back the Senate majority say Democratic victories Tuesday in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia are an early warning and a wake-up call ahead of next year’s elections.  

• The GOP senators, who are vying to defeat Democratic incumbents in Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other swing states, say Tuesday’s results show that abortion remains a potent issue that will help Democratic candidates next year. 
  
  
• Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said abortion…hurt Republicans on Tuesday. …Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said “the takeaway” for Republicans is “the issue of abortion is an important one to the electorate.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said voters showed once again Tuesday that they don’t want the government to interfere in their personal decisions about reproductive health care.  

CNN: Republicans flail on abortion as Democrats embrace a top 2024 issue 
By Stephen Collinson
November 9, 2023

• Democrats countrywide are already targeting GOP candidates lower down the ballot. The Montana Democratic Party, for instance, criticized Tim Sheehy, a Republican running to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, and GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale, who is also considering a bid, warning that their anti-abortion rights positions will “haunt them on the campaign trail.”
  
  
• The campaign of Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown – another vulnerable senator next year – released a video highlighting his GOP opponents’ anti-abortion rights positions.

See also: FACT SHEET: Republican Senate Candidates Are on The Record and on Tape Opposing a Woman’s Right to Make Her Own Health Care Decisions, Will Support a National Abortion Ban.

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