IN THE STATES: Wall-to-Wall Coverage Highlights GOP Senate Candidates’ Anti-Choice Agenda & Senate Democrats Fight To Protect Choice

Voters in key Senate battlegrounds are reading and watching wall-to-wall coverage calling out GOP Senate candidates’ attacks on abortion access, birth control and women’s health care – and highlighting how Senate Democrats like Mark Kelly, Raphael Warnock, Maggie Hassan, and Catherine Cortez Masto will fight to protect Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose.

See for yourself:

AZ – Arizona Republic: Court abortion leak could rock Arizona races up and down the ballot

• Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz… made clear he supports abortion rights. He called overturning Roe “an enormous step backwards for our country.”

• The five men vying for the Republican [Senate] nomination all oppose abortion rights.

• Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich spoke…about enforcing a ban if it happens. “If Roe v. Wade is eventually overturned, we will get to work in AZ and across the country to protect life,” he said in a written statement from his campaign.

• Blake Masters, the venture capitalist whose campaign is supported by billionaire Peter Thiel, tweeted “bye bye Roe.” He has in the past said states should not have the right to permit abortions.

• Businessman Jim Lamon and Arizona Corporation Commissioner Justin Olson applauded an end to Roe.

AZ – KNXV – WATCH:

• “This is an enormous step backwards for our country for women to lose this constitutional right. Roe v. Wade was a 50 year precedent. And this is the first time I can remember that rights were ever removed from any individual in our country. So, if this draft stands, and this becomes the decision, I would say, this is a sad day for our country and women’s health and women’s reproductive rights.”

AZ – KVOA: Hundreds gather at abortion rights protest in downtown Tucson

• Hundreds of pro-choice Southern Arizonans gathered downtown Tuesday to speak out against that majority draft opinion that was leaked Monday. Their message, we cannot go backwards. They vow to fight for a woman’s right to choose.

CO – Fort Morgan Times: Supreme Court leak ignites abortion debate

• “Overturning [Roe v. Wade] would drag us into a past when women faced horrific risks to their lives because they lacked the freedom to make their own health care choices,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Denver, tweeted. “We must protect the right to choose by codifying it in law.”

• The two Republican candidates vying to challenge Bennet in the general election have each weighed in on the abortion issue.

• “Most Americans who were intellectually honest when looking at both the Roe and Casey decisions knew they were both based on flimsy legal precedent and would eventually be overturned by an originalist-majority court,” U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks wrote in a Tweet. He was a sponsor of House Bill 22-1079, which would have abolished abortion in Colorado, and instructed the state to disregard Roe v. Wade.

• U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea has opposed the Reproductive Health Equity Act as reckless.

CO – Colorado Public Radio: Colorado leaders react to leaked Supreme Court’s opinion on abortion access, Roe v. Wade

• Colorado Democrats swiftly sent out an email Monday night highlighting the abortion positions of the two men in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate. State Rep. Ron Hanks signed on to a bill this year to abolish abortion in Colorado. His opponent, businessman Joe O’Dea, has criticized the state’s new law protecting abortion access.

• The man Hanks and O’Dea hope to run against, Sen. Michael Bennet, said in a statement that if the court overturns Roe, it “would drag us into a past when women faced horrific risks to their lives because they lacked the freedom to make their own health care choices.”

FL – Florida Politics: Val Demings makes case for choice to Jacksonville Democrats

• “Let this homegirl in her hometown make this clear,” Demings, who grew up in Jacksonville, said. “When I decided to start my family I didn’t have the Governor’s permission. I didn’t ask my Congress for permission. I dang sure didn’t ask my Senator’s permission. And they need to get out of our business and leave the personal decisions, the intimate decision to women.”

• Hundreds of people came to hear her speak on the Eastside… “We are not going back, we are not sitting down, we are not shutting up,” Demings said. “We’re going to fight and fight and fight someone for a woman’s right to choose.”

FL – Sun Sentinel: South Florida abortion rights supporters mobilize after leaked draft Supreme Court opinion. Advocates rally in Fort Lauderdale

• Congresswoman Val Demings, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, condemned Rubio, as did the Florida Democratic Party, which cataloged Rubio’s record of opposition to Roe v. Wade.

• “Let me be clear: Roe v. Wade still stands. No matter what the Supreme Court decides, I will always stand up, speak out, and fight to codify it into law. Let’s win this race together!” Demings said on Twitter.

FL – WJAX – WATCH:

• Val Demings [said] “striking down Roe V. Wade and taking away a woman’s right to make her own decisions is appalling and extremely dangerous.”

GA – Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A Senate GOP debate without Herschel Walker highlights new abortion clash

• All five Republican Senate candidates who attended the Atlanta Press Club debate said they backed a “total” abortion ban that includes cases of incest and rape.

• Their staunch anti-abortion stances struck a sharp contrast with Warnock, who described himself Tuesday as a “pro-choice pastor” who would fight to safeguard access to abortions.

• [Herschel Walker] filled out a survey from the Georgia Life Alliance that supported outlawing abortion, including in instances of rape and incest, saying he’d back “legislation which protects the sanctity of human life, even if the legislation is not perfect.”

• Walker promised to “protect the unborn with my life … because I believe from the womb to the tomb.”

GA – 11 Alive – WATCH:

• “In a country where we have high rates of maternal death while women are giving birth [Warnock] fears we’ll have even higher rates of death because women won’t have equal access to care if Roe v. Wade is overturned.”

GA- Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Jolt: Perdue, GOP Senate candidates push full abortion ban, even after rape or incest

• At the Atlanta Press Club’s Senate GOP debate on Tuesday, four of the five contenders on stage said they’d back legislation that forbids all abortions, even in the case of rape or incest.

• And though frontrunner Herschel Walker was a no-show, he’s taken a similar position. At a campaign stop early Tuesday, the former football star promised to “protect the unborn with my life … because I believe from the womb to the tomb.”

NC – WRAL: Abortion takes on heightened political importance as NC primary nears

• In the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate… U.S. Rep. Ted Budd and former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker expressed strong personal opposition to abortion in all cases.

• A Meredith College survey released Tuesday found that 53% of registered North Carolina voters want to see a law to expand or keep in place the current provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

• Presumptive Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley put out a statement swiftly after the draft opinion was published.

• “As the former Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court, I know that abortion is a fundamental right – and I will not stop fighting to protect that freedom,” she wrote on Twitter.

NH – WGIR: On NH Today, Hassan on Roe Decision: ‘An Evisceration of Women’s Rights’

• Senator Hassan is appalled by the decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

• “This is an evisceration of a fundamental right that women have; the right to make their own healthcare decisions; the right to be considered true and equal citizens in a democracy.”

NH – NECN – WATCH:

• “It means we have to renew our efforts in Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe v Wade across the country and make sure that women have access to this critical care when and where they need it.”

NH – WMUR – WATCH:

• The unconfirmed SCOTUS opinion would be devastating for women’s freedom. With a woman’s right to live as a free and equal citizen under attack, Congress needs to codify Roe v. Wade now more than ever”

NV – KSNV – WATCH:

• “This is a generation of people that have been born and lived and died believing they have the right to choose. That’s what this precedent is all about. And there are so many others and new ones that are out there that have had a major impact. And they are steeped in the right of privacy and liberty in this country for individuals and their freedoms.”

NV – KLAS: Laxalt among first Republicans to comment on Supreme Court Roe v. Wade leak

• Republican Adam Laxalt, the former Nevada Attorney General who is running against U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, said overturning Roe v. Wade “would constitute an historic victory” against abortion.

• Masto’s campaign replied soon after Laxalt’s statement: Adam Laxalt has again said what we’ve known all along: he wants Roe v. Wade overturned so he can strip away a woman’s right to choose in Nevada and across the country. He stands against the vast majority of Nevadans who are pro-choice and would be an automatic vote for federal legislation banning abortion nationwide, taking away this fundamental freedom and punishing women for seeking reproductive care. It’s why Nevadans rejected him in 2018, and why they’ll reject him again in November.

NV – Reno Gazette Journal: Where Nevada officials stand on leaked Supreme Court opinion on Roe v. Wade

• U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said overturning Roe would amount to “a dangerous attack on women across the country.

• “Nevada law protects access to abortion — for now,” Masto added in a Monday tweet. “That could change if Republicans succeed in outlawing it nationwide. We must keep fighting to ensure access to this critical health care.”

• Adam Laxalt, the former Republican Nevada Attorney General who’s now running for U.S. Senate, called the leaked decision a “victory for the sanctity of life.”

NV – Las Vegas Review Journal: Nevada Democrats vow to support abortion rights amid protests

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., warned that a conservative Supreme Court and GOP control of Congress could result in the loss of reproductive rights for women in Nevada and nationally.

• She doubled down on that concern in a keynote speech Tuesday at a gala for EMILY’s List, a national group organized to elect pro-choice women candidates.

PA – Pennsylvania Capital-Star: Advocates, Democrats energized by possibility of U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade

• Democrats have also stressed the importance of electing a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. The highly-watched race is viewed as one of the few opportunities for the party to maintain control of the upper chamber.

PA – Philadelphia Inquirer: Here’s where the Pennsylvania Senate candidates stand on abortion rights

• In a statement Tuesday McCormick added, “If this leaked memo becomes the court’s majority opinion, it would be a huge victory for the protection of innocent life and rightfully puts the issue of life back into the hands of the states.”

• Mehmet Oz: Oz said at the Harrisburg debate that former President Donald Trump, who endorsed him, “said that I am pro-life, and I am pro-life. I’ve been very clear on my position throughout this race.”

WI – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Leak of draft Supreme Court opinion on Roe v. Wade transforms Wisconsin’s political races ahead of 2022 elections

• Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson who is running for a third term this fall… said that if the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade becomes the “final decision,” he would “agree with that outcome.”

WI – WISN: Abortion rights likely to be central to 2022 campaigns, Wisconsin political strategist says

• The issue has taken on a new sense of urgency for many voters. “It’s obviously front and center now and people are going to show up based on this issue,” a Milwaukee voter said.

###