LANDSLIDE: Kansas voters send a clear message to Supreme Court and the GOP
Kansas citizens overwhelmingly voted against removing a woman’s right to abortion from the state constitution, sending a loud and clear message to both the Supreme Court and anti-abortion activists — Bans off our Bodies!
With 95% of the vote counted, the decisive 59-41 margin came as a shock.
Activists on both sides of the issue spent millions on campaigns to sway voters. Those in the anti-choice camp went so far as to send dishonest and misleading texts to voters, instructing them to vote YES on the ballot referendum to preserve abortion rights.
Republicans: we’re going to trick Kansas voters into banning abortion.
Kansas voters: hold my beer.🍻 pic.twitter.com/KZlyBHN5hm
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) August 3, 2022
The opposite was true.
“The voters in Kansas have spoken loud and clear: We will not tolerate extreme bans on abortion,” said Rachel Sweet, the campaign manager for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, which led the effort to defeat the amendment.
Sweet credits a bi-partisan effort for the successful defeat of the referendum that would hinder access to safe and legal reproductive healthcare for Kansas women.
Kansas is a solidly red state, with more registered Republicans than Democrats. “A number of voters said they were registered Republicans, but opposed the amendment,” The New York Times reported.
“We’re watching the votes come in, we’re seeing the changes of some of the counties where Donald Trump had a huge percentage of the vote, and we’re seeing that just decimated,” said Jo Dee Adelung, 63, a Democrat from Merriam, Kansas, who knocked on doors and called voters in recent weeks.
With a strong Evangelical base and strict Catholic influence, Kansas has long been considered a Republican stronghold. Though having elected governors from both parties, the midwestern state has overwhelmingly voted for GOP nominees for president.
With the midterms just three months away, if this is any indication of where the American people stand in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, in the words of 90 yr old Republican Norma Hamilton – who voted no on the referendum – “I like the women’s rights.”
So do we, Ms. Hamilton, so do we.
Original reporting by Mitch Smith and Katie Glueck at The New York Times.
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