Democrats scored major wins across crucial red states in Tuesday night’s election, securing abortion access rights and flipping a state House all by running on local matters rather than tying themselves to President Joe Biden.
While Democratic success in Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania this year could indicate success in next year’s 2024 presidential election, those familiar with the winning candidates and measures on Tuesday night said Biden rarely came up on the campaign trail.
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Biden’s agenda proved to be popular in Republican strongholds such as Kentucky, where incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) defeated GOP opponent Daniel Cameron, but the president was not a major factor in Beshear’s win.
A person who worked on Beshear’s campaign told Politico about the national leaders and team members, saying they “were all aligned that this race was in the best possible position if it was about Beshear and [Republican nominee Daniel] Cameron and kept it focused on Kentucky — we wanted to keep this a Kentucky race.”
In the state that overwhelmingly voted for former President Donald Trump in both elections, the Democratic Kentucky governor ran his reelection campaign on supporting abortion rights and red flag laws, preventing people who may hurt themselves or others from acquiring guns.
Months out from the first presidential primary, voters are indicating abortion will once again be a top subject during the 2024 election season. Many voters say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, crossing party lines, as seen on Tuesday, when Ohio voters passed Issue 1, which will enshrine reproductive rights into the state’s constitution, including abortion and contraceptive access.
In Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court contest, Dan McCaffery said he won on the back of running on abortion rights.
“I never spoke about him, never mentioned him,” McCaffery said about Biden. “He never came up on the campaign trail at all. The only time he ever came up on the campaign trail, frankly, was there were one or two occasions in the summertime where I had a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses on, and people thought I looked like Joe Biden. That’s when I was like, ‘C’mon, I’m a lot younger looking.’”
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Despite Biden condemning the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, the president’s supporters are concerned he isn’t making a big enough deal about the issue that has propelled Democrats to big wins two years in a row.
“His policies, abortion rights — not enough people connect those to Biden,” said Angela Kuefler, a Democratic pollster who worked on the Ohio ballot measure. “That’s been his perpetual problem. There is no president who has accomplished as much as Joe Biden, but you ask people in a focus group, ‘Name something he’s done,’ and they struggle to name one thing. But that’s what campaigns are for.”
