The appeal of abortion versus Biden’s unpopularity: What to watch for in today’s election

Here’s what you can watch:

Abortion access versus Biden’s unpopularity in Virginia and Kentucky.

All 140 seats inside Virginia General Assembly Voting will take place on Tuesday, with the Democratic-leaning state’s relatively popular Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, hoping to capture the Senate and secure total Republican control of Richmond. The achievement would boost Mr. Youngkin’s national ambitions.

But Democrats support abortion rights and warn that Republican Party control would end abortion access in the last southeastern state.

Mr. Youngkin does testing a compromise which national Republicans hope will be a winning message after so many party losses since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion: a ban on access to abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of a mother. Democrats say this is a ruse, but they must overcome the weight of Mr. Biden’s unpopularity.

A similar dynamic plays out in Kentuckywhere Democrats have leaned especially heavily on the abortion issue to tarnish the Republican challenger as Governor, Daniel Cameron, who as current Attorney General has had to defend Kentucky’s total abortion ban. The incumbent Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, remains popular, with a family name (his father, Steve Beshear, was also governor) and a moderate reputation that have shielded him from attacks he soft on crime and supports “radical” transgender rights.

Mr. Beshear did that consistently led in the polls, but in a state that former President Donald J. Trump won by about 26 percentage points in 2020, the “D” next to Mr. Beshear’s name is a problem. The last polls of the cycle indicated a dead heat.

Will Ohio voters support abortion rights?

Ohio has been a reliably Republican state since Mr. Trump’s rise to power, but a referendum to establish abortion rights under the state constitution on Tuesday could provide the truest test of where even Republicans stand on the issue. Or not.

Abortion rights groups have made gains with ballot measures that put the issue of abortion directly to voters since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which struck down constitutional protections for abortion rights. Even in deeply Republican states like Kansas, voters have overwhelmingly supported abortion access. But abortion opponents won some important victories on Tuesday before the referendum. In this battle, voters will have to vote affirmatively “yes” to a constitutional amendment; Ohioans have historically tended to reject ballot amendments.

Although the amendment would “establish the right to make and exercise one’s own reproductive decisions,” it also explicitly allows the state to ban abortion after viability, or around 23 weeks, when the fetus can survive outside the uterus, unless the pregnant woman’s doctor finds that the procedure is “necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient.” But voters will see it at the ballot box a summary from the State SecretaryFrank LaRose, a Republican who opposes abortion, says the amendment “would always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability.”

Both sides of the issue have accused the other of misinformation and underhanded tactics.

In Mississippi, a test for Medicaid expansion – and a scandal.

Mississippi‘s abortion ban overturned Roe v. Wade when the Supreme Court sided with Mississippi health officer Thomas E. Dobbs in Dobbs v. Jackson.

The Deep South state now faces a fierce battle for governor, but the candidates have not made abortion the central issue as the incumbent Republican governor, Tate Reeves, and his Democratic challenger, Brandon Presley, both oppose it .

Instead, Mr. Presley’s surprisingly strong challenge has been fueled by a push to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and a public corruption scandal in which $94 million in federal funds intended for Mississippi’s poor was misspent on projects such as a university volleyball facility under government pressure. retired superstar quarterback Brett Favre.

Mr. Reeves was never directly involved in the scandal, but he did fire an investigating lawyer shortly after the lawyer issued a subpoena that could have yielded details of the involvement of prominent Mississippians.

“If you think Tate Reeves will tackle corruption, I have a piece of land on the beach in Nettleton to sell you,” Mr Presley said. in a debate this monthreferring to his birthplace in the northeastern part of the state.

Mr. Presley, a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, has a unique kind of name recognition; he is a second cousin of Elvis Presley.

But in Mississippi, Mr. Reeves has three advantages that could prove impenetrable: his position, the “R” next to his name on the ballot, and the approval of Mr. Trumpwhich won the state by nearly 17 percentage points in 2020.

Voting initiatives, from wealth to weed.

Voters will make numerous direct decisions Tuesday, bypassing elected officials. In addition to abortion, the most viewed initiative will be introduced again Ohio, where voters will decide whether cannabis should be legalized for recreational use. If voters agree, Ohio would become the 24th state to legalize marijuana. That could put pressure on Congress to advance legislation, at the very least, to loosen restrictions on interstate banking for legal cannabis businesses.

Texans will determine the fate of fourteen constitutional amendments, including one that would ban the state from imposing a “wealth tax,” or a tax on the market value of assets owned but not sold. Liberal activists and some prominent Democratic senators, such as Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have advanced such taxes as the only way to tap the wealth of billionaires, whose income taxes are minimal but whose vast, untaxed wealth supports lavish lifestyles .

Texans will also decide whether to raise the mandatory retirement age of state judges from 75 to 79.