How much post-Roe anger will translate in November?
A pollster’s view of a post-Roe election season. Plus, more on model legislation on abortion likely headed to the General Assembly’s special session. Scenes from Lafayette’s July 4th parade.
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A POLLSTER’S VIEW OF A POST-ROE ELECTION SEASON
Last week, Indiana Democrats toured the state, outraged about the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, anticipating what the General Assembly would do with new abortion restrictions in a special session later this month and determined to make Republicans pay on Election Day in November.
Among them: Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, who is running an uphill campaign challenging U.S. Sen. Todd Young, a pro-life Republican that, at this point, has sizable leads in polling and in available funding. McDermott, during a stop in West Lafayette, was asked whether the Roe ruling and a potential total or near-total ban on abortion in Indiana would create some sort moment similar to the one that helped sink Richard Mourdock in 2012. (In a debate with Democrat Joe Donnelly weeks before that election, Mourdock said he was against abortion ban exceptions for rape, saying that “it is something that God intended.”)
“It’s scary that legislators can take away the rights of half of our population and not fear the ballot box, whatsoever,” McDermott said last week. “I’m of the opinion that by winning in November, we can send shockwaves in the Republican Party that this is not acceptable.”
How much of that anger will translate in November? I asked Christine Matthews, president of Bellwether Research, who did polling for Mitch Daniels during his run for governor, about that.
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