CHICAGO – Democrat Amanda Taylor has decided to “get off the couch” and run for the Missouri General Assembly after state lawmakers passed one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country.
Taylor, who is campaigning in a deeply red district, says she has heard voters across the political spectrum express support for a bill on the November ballot that would repeal the ban and enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
“They will come to vote against the abortion ban. And they will come to vote for Kamala and other women on the ballot,” Taylor said Tuesday as she stopped at the Democratic National Convention to sign a banner supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Democrats are banking on it. The centrality of reproductive rights to the party’s political platform is clearly visible at the convention, from the giant inflatable IUD that a contraceptive rights group set up a few blocks from the convention, to the mobile health clinic offering free medication abortions, to the prime-time speeches by women who have suffered under state-level abortion bans.
New research from EMILY’s List – which supports candidates who support abortion rights and supports Harris – suggests that the issue of abortion resonates with female voters, especially those under 45.
The report, compiled by Women Vote, the independent spending arm of EMILY’s List, looked at five swing states: Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The poll found that support for abortion access is the top reason voters across all demographic groups are supporting Harris.
The group also noted that Harris had closed the “enthusiasm gap” that Democrats faced before President Joe Biden announced last month that he would not seek re-election.
The 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and paved the way for states to enact abortion restrictions, changed the political landscape in ways that are only just becoming clear, said EMILY’s List President Jessica Mackler.
“The research we have today shows that women are well equipped to help Kamala Harris win,” Mackler told reporters at a press conference on the report on Tuesday.
A CBS/You Gov poll last week found that 56 percent of women favor Harris, while 54 percent of men support Republican candidate Donald Trump. In a close election, women could tip the scales in Harris’ favor, Democrats say.
Reproductive rights have become such an important political issue for Democrats that “even men are talking about abortion,” says Melissa Williams, executive director of Women Vote.
Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood, who represents a suburban and rural district in northern Illinois, recalled being with Harris the day the Dobbs decision was announced.
“The whole world has changed and we knew we had to get to work,” Underwood said Tuesday morning at a meeting of the DNC women’s caucus. “When one in three women lives in a state that partially or completely bans abortion, it’s up to all of us. I know that with the power and strength of the women in this group, the power and strength of our voices as leaders, we will not only win this election, we will win back our freedom.”
But abortion is not the only issue that is widening the gender divide and infuriating Democrats.
Trump’s derogatory remarks about women, as well as a comment by his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, who mocked “childless cat ladies,” have motivated Democrats.
“I’m a childless dog lady,” said Julie Pierce, a retiree and first-time Democratic delegate from Georgia, wearing a T-shirt that read “Madame President 2024.”
“Is JD Vance going to tell me I’m worthless? It’s like he’s saying, ‘Little lady, you don’t have to worry about your pretty little head…’
“Well, I’ve been through that and I won’t do it again,” she said.
Throughout the congress, clear signs of female empowerment were evident.
“I’m honored to be here with the women who … are getting things done,” Elizabeth H. Shuler, the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO, told delegates at the Women’s Caucus. “Because we are the backbone of this party.”
Vendors sold T-shirts reading “Trust Democratic Women.” Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden called the president the “OG Girl Dad” as she introduced him on the convention’s main stage Monday night.
And women’s struggle for equality and the weight of history were a theme for several speakers at the convention. Former first lady and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who came close to breaking the nation’s highest glass ceiling in her 2016 presidential campaign, invoked the trailblazers before her, from Shirley Chisolm, the Brooklyn 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 story of our country is that progress is possible. But it is not guaranteed,” Clinton said. “We must fight for it. And never give up. There is always a choice. Do we advance or retreat? Do we come together as ‘we the people’ or do we divide into ‘us against them’?”
