Are the Democrats Over Playing Abortion?

With two weeks left in the mid-term election and almost a quarter of the vote already cast Colorado Democrats are hoping the abortion issue will be sufficient to support another cross-the-board victory like 2018. Unfortunately, all the national signs are that abortion has faded in public concern and inflation, which Democrats and especially President Biden get blamed for, is becoming dominant.

Valerie Richardson in a conservative Washington Times article quoted Dick Wadhams and me on the issue in reference to Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea.

Washington Times:

For Democrats, however, there are signs that the abortion issue, which shot to the forefront after the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning Roe v. Wade, is running out of steam.

“The effect of the Dobbs decision has really slowed, and with these increasing reports of inflation and the economy and then I’ll throw in crime, especially here in Colorado, I think it definitely makes O’Dea competitive to win this thing,” said Mr. Wadhams.

Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli said that Democrats “have put everything, including these independent operations, into abortion.”

“Well, abortion is an issue that decays quicky. It turns over,” said Mr. Ciruli, director of the University of Denver’s Crossley Center for Public Opinion Research. “People get tired of it. And now the economy is the big nasty issue.”

As a result, he said, “there’s a sense, including in the O’Dea race, that the Democrats are going to have to revise their strategy for these last few weeks. They’re going to need to change themes or step it up, because that’s an advantage for him at this point.”

Joe O'Dea, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

He compared the race to the 2014 Senate contest in which Democratic Sen. Mark Udall placed an enormous emphasis on women’s issues, earning the nickname 'Mark Uterus,' and ultimately lost to Republican Cory Gardner.

Mark Udall, that was the only issue he played, and by Oct. 1, the national tide that was helping Cory pulled forward, and he eked it out. Is that happening here?

"I don’t know," Mr. Ciruli said. "But that’s a Democratic concern."

READ: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/oct/20/joe-odea-gambles-big-colorados-independent-voters-/