House Democrats campaign arm zeroes in on races where abortion is on ballot

The campaign arm for House Democrats has zeroed in on races in states where abortion is on the ballot in 2024.

In a Friday memo, first obtained by Politico, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) noted the multiple states in the U.S. that either will have measures in favor of abortion rights on the ballot in November or those that have movements to get those measures on the ballot currently in progress. These states include New York, Florida and Colorado.

“This further guarantees that reproductive freedom will remain a driving issue for voters this November, putting vulnerable House Republicans and GOP candidates on the hook for their anti-abortion and anti-freedom positions,” the DCCC said in the memo. “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will ensure that House Republicans' efforts to ban abortion nationwide are top of mind as voters head to the polls to protect their reproductive rights.”

The memo also noted 18 congressional districts that are on the organization’s “offensive and defensive battleground” that “are in states that have or will likely have an abortion ballot initiative on election day.” These districts included those currently represented by Republican House members including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

“Vulnerable House Republicans have attempted to skirt responsibility by claiming abortion is now a ‘states issue,’” the memo continues. “This empty rhetoric runs counter to their efforts to criminalize abortion care at the federal level. In the 118th Congress, House Republicans have passed four bills that would restrict access to reproductive care nationwide and introduced an additional six anti-abortion bills - including two total national abortion bans.”

In 2022, voters in states including California, Michigan and Vermont approved ballot measures that enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions. On the same day, voters in the right-leaning states of Kentucky and Montana turned down measures that would’ve limited reproductive care accessibility. Late last year, Ohioans voted in favor of a measure to enshrine abortion protections in the Buckeye State’s Constitution.

Will Reinert, the National press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the campaign arm of House Republicans, said in an emailed statement to The Hill that “[a] top non-partisan election analyst just dumped cold water on the DCCC’s pipe dream that ballot initiatives will be a ‘silver bullet’ for overcoming extreme House Democrats’ dangerous open-border, pro-crime and pro-inflation policies.”

Reinert’s statement also linked to a Cook Political Report analysis on whether pro-abortion rights measures will help Democrats in the upcoming 2024 elections.