After Tuesday’s success in Ohio, Democrats are looking to bring more abortion rights initiatives to 2024 ballots, including key states lilke Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, as well as red states South Dakota and Nebraska.
National Democrats see it as a way to bring attention to a winning issue for President Biden and down-ballot Democrats, hoping to inspire voters to get out the vote and keep Biden in office.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, seven states have enshrined abortion rights by ballot initiatives, including California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont and now Ohio.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff has described Democrats’ path to victory in 2024 as “Dobbs and Democracy” in statements he made in Miami.
Florida, with the earliest deadline for voter signatures to get an initiative on the 2024 ballot, is looking for help from national democrats. Florida has one of the most difficult processes for getting a state constitutional amendment initiative on the ballot, but Biden lost to Trump by only three percentage points in 2020.
A ballot initiative in Florida requires more than 890,000 signatures with at least half of the state’s 28 congressional districts represented, and the state’s Supreme Court could still reject it. Florida’s attorney general is already arguing for that, and Top Gov DeSantis has already enacted a six-week ban on abortion.
Advocacy groups have already gathered nearly 500,000 signatures since May.
An abortion rights group founded by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has donated $1 million to an effort to put an initiative on Nevada’s ballot next year, and is in talks with groups in Arizona and Florida.
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