A Democrat who campaigned on abortion rights and I.V.F. access on Tuesday won a special Alabama state House election in a district long held by Republicans, according to The Washington Post.
Democrat Marilyn Lands, who in 2022 lost the election to represent Alabama’s House District 10 by seven points, on Tuesday defeated Republican Teddy Powell by a 25-point margin in the district.
Lands, a licensed mental health counselor, shared her own abortion story in ad, describing how she had terminated a nonviable pregnancy 20 years earlier and noting that women today would have to leave the state to get the procedure.
Though just about 6,000 people voted in the election, the race marks a shift in a district former President Donald Trump narrowly carried in 2020. Democrats have won numerous elections and ballot referendums by campaigning heavily on abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Lands found additional fuel by campaigning on IVF access after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling temporarily blocked the procedure in the state.
“From what I heard from the voters at the polls I was at, [reproductive rights] was a really big factor. And so many women came out. I had a woman with her young daughter wanting her to see history being made,” Lands told the Post.
Democrats hope to make IVF a access a key issue in other states as well.
“This special election is a harbinger of things to come — Republicans across the country have been put on notice that there are consequences to attacks on IVF — from the bluest blue state to the reddest red, voters are choosing to fight for their fundamental freedoms by electing Democrats across the country,” Heather Williams, who heads the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
The Biden campaign touted the result as a “major warning sign for Trump.”
“Voters will not stand for his attacks on reproductive health care. This November will be no different,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
