For what must be the 50th time this month, Politico Playbook was forced to begin its morning dispatch like this:
More evidence came in overnight that reproductive rights remains a potent issue for Democrats, at least in low-turnout contests.
Still! Even now! Even though Beltway media keep acting surprised every single time! (Note how they hedge it with that “at least,” even though it’s literally every goddamned election now.)
On the same day Republican Senator Josh Hawley’s wife Erin Hawley stood in front of the extremist hacks Donald Trump appointed to the Supreme Court and explained why fascist Christians’ put-upon feelings and irrelevant religious beliefs should trump pregnant people’s ability to access abortion pills; and in Alabama, the state whose supreme court literally just tried to take fucking in vitro fertilization away from people, a truly shocking thing happened: A Democrat flipped a Republican state legislature seat, and bigly.
The candidate’s platform? Protecting IVF and reproductive rights and repealing Alabama’s abortion ban.
It’s shocking she won, if you’re a goldfish.
The special election was in Alabama state House District 10, in the Huntsville area, to replace a Republican state rep named David Cole, who was (womp womp) convicted of voter fraud. As poll numbers analyst dude J. Miles Coleman explains, Democrat Marilyn Lands lost there in 2022 by seven points, 53.4 to 46.6. Last night she won by 25 points, 62.4 to 37.6. She won the district, Coleman explains, by more than Doug Jones did in 2017 when he was running against the pervert. (Donald Trump won it by one point. So it’s certainly swingy!)
Did polls predict this? Um. Well. Internal polling from her opponent Teddy Powell’s campaign showed him beating her by about 11 points. Her campaign’s internal polling had her winning by three. Again, she won by 25.
Which, again, kind of keeps happening, the polls underestimating support specifically for Democrats.
Meidas Touch shares a statement from Lands:
“Today, Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation. Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception. To my campaign team and volunteers, both in this run and in my last one, I want you to know how much your support means to me. I could not have done this alone and have been so incredibly blessed by the people around me. I look forward to representing everyone in District 10 and building a brighter future for Alabama. The campaign might have ended, but our work is just beginning.”
And one from the Biden campaign:
“Last month Alabamans lost access to fertility treatments because of Donald Trump. Tonight the voters in Alabama's 10th House District elected a pro-choice champion in Marilyn Lands, sending Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans a clear message: they know exactly who is to blame for restricting their ability to decide how and when to build their families and they're ready to fight back.”
We’ll all be sure to act surprised again next time, though, and in November.
“From what I heard from the voters at the polls I was at, [reproductive rights] was a really big factor. And so many women came out. I had a woman with her young daughter wanting her to see history being made,” Lands said in a brief interview Tuesday night after her victory.
It’s almost like Americans hate Republicans just as much as they keep saying they do, and they’re not going to forget that these incel lunatics — whom they hate — keep taking away their rights and bodily autonomy.
Here’s an ad where Lands and a supporter share their personal stories of nonviable pregnancies. The supporter recently had to leave the state for care, rather than carry a dying pregnancy to term as per Alabama law. Lands says she once faced a similar situation, but was able to get the care she needed, and finds it absurd that she could two decades ago, but this voter couldn’t.
And here’s an ad from Lands about protecting the right to contraception, which snake Republicans absolutely are coming for.
Keep fucking around, Republicans.
Gonna keep finding out.
Even in Alabama.
[Meidas Touch / Washington Post]
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No woman who is seven months pregnant, ever waddles past an abortion clinic and says, 'Darn, I knew there was something I've been meaning to get around to.'
Molly Ivans
A black state senator I know told me that after the Extreme Court overturned Roe that when she encountered Republican ladies in deep-Red Georgia here they would pull her aside and say that that shit was the last straw for them and they would be considering voting differently.
It's quite possible those same white ladies are involved in Republican shit because it would be social suicide to wear a Biden button in this area for them. But when they get into the voting booth they're very much considering the futures for their daughters and granddaughters.