Tuesday saw some of the last remaining major party primaries of 2022. The headline event of the night wasn’t a primary, however: It was a ballot measure in Kansas, and it was a big victory for abortion rights.
Elections can be important because of their immediate effects, or because of how political actors will interpret them — or both. This was both. The immediate substantive effect is straightforward: Kansas voters refused to change the state constitution to say there is no right to an abortion, so the state will remain a haven for abortion rights.
And what about the vote’s effects on political actors? It’s likely that Democrats, already energized by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, will now be even more likely to make reproductive rights a high-profile campaign theme this fall. It’s less clear whether Republicans will back off some of their hard-line positions. Republicans who oppose abortion under all circumstances have had the upper hand within the party so far this year. It will be interesting to see whether those with more moderate anti-abortion positions go on the offensive.
