As with all my stories, this is brought to you by groups encouraging massive youth voting, including Civic Influencers to help college voter activism and The Civics Center for high school students.
Last week women and young people powered the KS Earthquake, as 70% or women and 52% of KS New Voter Registrants since Dobbs were Under 25.
A special election in upstate New York is the next test for the post-Dobbs groundswell. The Democratic Ulster County Executive, veteran Pat Ryan, is running in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Antonio Delgado, who became New York’s Lieutenant Governor. Ryan sees the election as the next test for abortion rights.* His Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro, known for losing the NY Governor’s race by a landslide in 2018, says he is “pro-life,” but is desperately trying to weasel around the issue:
Asked whether he would vote in favor of federal legislation restricting access to abortion if he were elected, Molinaro did not directly answer but referred again to the SCOTUS ruling. “The Supreme Court decided that this is a decision made by states,” Molinaro said. “And so the states make this choice, not the federal government. And that's my view.”
Nice try, Marc. The federal government will make this choice by codifying Roe, but only if enough Democrats like Ryan win and Republicans like you lose.
Prior to Kansas, this race was seen by pollsters as close, but I doubt their samples included demographics reflecting significant registration and turnout by women and young people, as in KS.
There is huge symbolic meaning to this special election. As Bill Palmer writes:
If the Democrats win this special election on August 23rd, the mainstream media might finally start talking about how the Democrats can indeed win the House in the midterms – and this could motivate more folks to go out and vote in the midterms. We see these kinds of self fulfilling prophecies play out all the time.
There are phone banks, text banks and if you’re in the District or near, door knocking, yard-signing and many other opportunities.
There are not many better uses of your time the next two weeks than being involved in this special election, through donating or volunteering.
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* The confluence of Delgado leaving and redistricting in NY results in this mess:
Ryan is simultaneously running in the newly drawn 18th Congressional District, which along with the rest of the newly drawn congressional districts, is holding its primaries on Aug. 23 ahead of the November general election. Also running in the 18th District primary is Moses Mugulusi, a state financial examiner, and Democratic strategist Aisha Mills. The winner will face Republican Assembly Member Colin Schmitt in November. Molinaro, meanwhile, is running in the new 19th Congressional District in November and will face either small business owner Jamie Cheney or attorney Josh Riley, who are both running in the Democratic primary for that district.
Got it? Me neither. Fortunately you don’t have to to help elect Ryan.