SCRANTON, Kan. — Meetings of the local Democratic Party in deeply Republican Osage County, a largely rural area where former President Donald Trump won 71% of the vote in 2020, typically draw about a dozen people.
But when Democrats gathered in late June, less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, more than 60 people showed up. On the agenda was the proposed amendment removing the right to an abortion from the Kansas Constitution.
Ann Mah, a Democratic member of the Kansas State Board of Education whose district includes Osage County, spoke to the crowd, describing the ballot question as a fight over government power.
