A Washington Post editorial warned that a Michigan bellwether congressional district could slip from the Democratic Party’s hands because residents aren’t as motivated by abortion as they once were.
The Post’s James Hohmann reported on Tuesday that he met with Democratic operatives in Michigan who see less passion for one of the party’s main topics in the area. It made him question if abortion would be a less motivating factor in elections across the country.
He started the article by asking, “What if abortion is not the galvanizing issue on Election Day that Democrats are expecting?
“What I heard in Michigan recently made me wonder. Here in the 7th District, a congressional bellwether carried by Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, many voters just don’t prioritize the right to choose nearly as much as they did two years ago.”
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Hohmann added that the 7th District, which includes the state capital, Lansing, and outlying areas near Detroit, supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election but elected Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., in 2022, who is now running for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Curtis Hertel, a fellow Democrat and advisor to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is running against Republican Tom Barret to fill Slotkin’s congressional seat. Barret, a former US Army soldier and pro-lifer, fell to Slotkin in 2022, but Hertel’s team may not find him as simple to defeat as Slotkin did.
The author stated that amid this close contest, Hertel’s surrogates are discovering that people are not responding as strongly to abortion, which could indicate trouble for the party as a whole.
Hohmann said, “But after Hertel delivered a pep talk to 16 volunteers at a party field office here on a recent Saturday afternoon, state Rep. Jennifer Conlin (D) told the group that she had just returned from knocking on doors and expressed amazement at how much less abortion comes up than when she won two years ago in the aftermath of Dobbs.
“That’s largely because many Michiganders feel a woman’s right to choose was guaranteed after voters overwhelmingly passed a state ballot referendum in 2022 to enshrine a right to the procedure in the state constitution.”
The issue is less of a priority for some voters and is “making it harder for Democrats to appeal to the multitudes of center-right women who crossed over to vote for Slotkin, Whitmer, and the abortion initiative in 2022,” he said.
Hohmann also said this is another dynamic contributing to “growing anxiety among top Democratic operatives that enthusiasm about voting for [Harris] has gotten shakier” in blue wall states she needs to win like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
