The Midterm Report: Abortion will decide the 2022 U.S. elections
With six weeks to go until election day, the 2022 midterms will be decided by a single-issue: abortion rights.
(Photo: Gayatri Malhotra/Unsplash 2021)
On Nov. 8, Americans will head to the polls to vote for the first time since electing Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. With governorships up for grabs at the state level, the nation will also determine the balance of power in Congress.
But with election conspiracy theorists flooding local election offices with voter challenges and public records requests, according to The Associated Press, more pressure is being placed on those who are certifying the results, an act that could be compromised by these challenges.
In hopes of preventing another Jan. 6th crisis, House Democrats have passed legislation to reform the Electoral Count Act in an effort to limit the ability of lawmakers to interrupt the certification process, while also clarifying the role of the Vice President in certifying the results.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has published a major decision, finding that the state violated the Voting Rights Act after a push from Republicans saw the state ban the ability to assist voters with returning their ballots. According to a group of Wisconsin voters with disabilities, the move would compromise their ability to ensure their votes get counted by preventing others from helping them with transportation and mobility needs. Similar legislation limiting assistance in returning ballots is being pushed in at least eight other states.
Races to watch in Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Ohio
Stacey Abrams, the Georgia gubernatorial candidate running for the second time against Gov. Brian Kemp, announced last week the launch of a new campaign strategy to increase voter turnout and encourage in-person voting during the first week of early voting.
Meanwhile, Kemp is trying to entice voters by pushing for grants for school districts to help students catch up on what they didn’t learn while in-person learning was interrupted in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s also calling for investments to hire more guidance counselors in schools while also passing legislation that would make school lockdown drills mandatory.
And as Republicans continue to contradict themselves—this time by calling for a national abortion ban after spending decades advocating for reproductive rights legislation to remain in the hands of the state—some GOP candidates are pushing back against the plan, pushed by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Not only is the national abortion ban legislation a doubling down for Republicans, the ban — at 15 weeks — wouldn’t achieve much, considering more than 90 per cent of abortions take place before the 12th week of gestation.
The Republican nominee for governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo, announced last week that he would not support the national abortion ban. Not only that, he’d fight to ensure the power to determine abortion laws remains at the state level. Nevada codified the right to abortion in a 1990 referendum for up to 24 weeks, though a national ban would supersede the decision by voters in the state over 30 years ago.
In Missouri, U.S. Senate candidate Trudy Busch Valentine is stepping up her campaign against Republican nominee Attorney General Eric Schmitt. She has called for more sympathetic immigration laws, called for more action to address the climate crisis and also lambasted the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court.
In Pennsylvania, a daytime talk show host and surgical doctor is making fun of his opponent for—*checks notes*—having a stroke. Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz, who smelled a guest’s urine on an episode of his TV show, has resorted to criticizing Democratic rival John Fetterman’s health after suffering a stroke back in May, calling for as many as seven debates between them.
Fetterman confirmed last week that he would appear in an Oct. 25 televised debate against Oz, two weeks ahead of election day.
Last week also saw Retired Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc emerge victorious in his race for New Hampshire’s Republican Senate primary, and he is set to face off against Democratic incumbent Maggie Hasan in November.
Bolduc has spent his campaign spreading misinformation about the 2020 presidential election, as well as conspiracy theories about vaccines.
In Ohio, a Republican congressional candidate is drawing scrutiny for his military record. J.R. Majewski has campaigned on his record as an Air Force combat veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. However, according to The Associated Press, military records show Majewski was never deployed to Afghanistan but rather, “completed a six-month stint helping to load planes at an airbase in Qatar.”
With election day just six weeks away, voters are beginning to make plans to vote-by-mail — a process that could drag out the results, similar to the 2020 presidential election, which wasn’t called for four days.
Battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin allow mail-in ballots, but workers are prevented from counting the votes until polls are closed, something that could cause considerable delays in determining the make-up of America’s next Congress.