The Kansas roadmap demystified

| 10:00 pm EDT August 4, 2022
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

We’ve seen a few local special elections take place in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, with one conservative legislative district in Michigan that went for Trump in 2020 swung for the Democratic candidate by double digits – but on Tuesday night, we saw the first statewide election following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in which the voters weighed in on a ballot initiative in the notoriously conservative state of Kansas.

The proposition, if successful, would have stripped abortion rights from the state constitution – but it failed overwhelmingly by double digits. Of course, there are a number of caveats to be had when looking at this measure – but there’s also some important points that the Democrats can learn from as well.

While this was in a state that’s redder than much of the country, it goes to show that states that already have Democratic leadership can propose ballot initiatives to protect reproductive rights as they stand and get a popular surge of support, even if it’s from people that have never and will likely never support a Democratic candidate. It also shows that the repeal of Roe v. Wade is having a surge of pushback that’s helping Democrats, and that means any Democratic candidates for office need to point that out.

This should be all the incentive we need to not only maintain control of both houses of Congress but also as many state legislatures as we can – as the inevitable result of Republican victories will only be the inevitable rollback of these rights. Momentum is on our side so let’s do all we can to keep it from happening.

Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.