Around one week ago, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade.
The landmark ruling established access to abortion as a right of US citizens since 1973. That matter is now being turned back to the states after the 6-3 vote in a case that struck down the Roe precedent.
Political analysts have been commenting on how this will affect primary races throughout the country and the upcoming midterms.
We now have data from the first primaries since the SCOTUS decision; they have shown some surprising and interesting insights into how voters are reacting.
Primaries in Colorado and Illinois
In Colorado, there was an unexpected result in the US Senate primary where John O’Dea won out. O’Dea is a pro-choice Republican and is one of the only ones in the whole country.
O’Dea’s win was also bad news for pro-Trump candidate, State Representative Ron Hanks. Hanks advocated for a full ban on all abortions for any reason. Hanks performed well in the primary, but couldn’t quite edge out O’Dea.
Democrats tried hard to get attention and votes focused on Hanks, hoping to face him in the upcoming election and be more easily able to paint him as extreme in his abortion opinions.
Meanwhile, in Illinois, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert won her primary, as did Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller.
Boebert faced unproven accusations from a Democrat-aligned PAC, but clearly survived it and come out stronger on the other side.
Some Democrats say female candidates who've spoken out against the overturning of Roe v. Wade may move into higher positions in their primaries. Several races in Illinois will test that tonight.
— Zoe Chipalla (@ZoeChipallaTV) June 29, 2022
Trump Backs Illinois Governor Candidate
In an easy endorsement, Trump backed Darren Bailey, who will be representing the Republican Party in the upcoming race for state governor.
He’ll face up against JB Pritzker, a wealthy man with a large donor list and political power in the state.
Bailey is completely pro-life and Democrats will also seek to portray him as an anti-abortion extremist.
This may work for them, but then again, the last governor of Illinois before Pritzker was Republican and there are no guarantees here.
That’s especially the case with the huge swell of support for Republicans that’s happening right now in the lead-up to the elections.
A Republican who supports abortion rights found success in Colorado in the first primary elections since Roe v. Wade was overturned https://t.co/3Vw1RU2n65
— Bloomberg (@business) June 29, 2022
The Bottom Line
For the most part, the overturning of Roe has activated the GOP base to bigger victories in these primaries.
The Democrats are basically hoping they can portray the Republican Party as extreme and anti-woman in order to depress voter turnout in the midterms.
This will only work if voters buy into it and only if the left manages to come up with something to rally people behind to get actual voters into their column.
Being for abortion won’t be enough to get them an election-changing amount of votes, even if it may be enough to reduce a percentage of GOP votes.
