Tuesday’s special election in a swing district will be a closely watched preview of both major parties’ midterm political strategies around abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn the right to end a pregnancy.
It is shaping up as the last big electoral test before the November midterms of Democrats’ attempts to channel anger over the decision — and subsequent state bans on abortion — into votes for their candidates, and of Republican efforts to keep the focus on different matters.
After closer-than-expected special elections for U.S. House in right-leaning districts in Nebraska and Minnesota, and after the drubbing of an antiabortion ballot measure in conservative Kansas, Democrats across the country are increasingly campaigning on protecting and expanding abortion rights and some Republican have grown nervous about the potential effects in November.
