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John,
We’re continuing to reflect on this past week and to think through paths ahead for our work. A few key points are emerging, and we’d like to share.
1. On average, the Harris campaign performed notably better in battleground states compared to the rest of the country.
Trump gained much more ground in solidly red and blue states—in areas where voters did not see Harris’s ads as much, did not have their doors knocked, and did not receive mail from the campaign.
In other words, her campaign seems to have (at least in part) inoculated voters against the wave of far-right support that took hold across the county.
2. Further down the ballot, we did not see an enormous red wave:
- Pro-choice Senate candidates held on in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada, despite Trump winning those states.
- In Pennsylvania, the pro-choice majority held in the state house, where every Democrat up for reelection won.
- In North Carolina, we won the governor’s race and broke the GOP state supermajority.
- Even in Montana, we gained ground in both state legislative chambers.
- Pro-choice ballot measures won across seven totally different states, including New York, Arizona, and Missouri.
So what does all this mean?
It means we should not rush to write off our values. It’s tempting to immediately embrace a clean explanation, but we were swimming against a strong, maybe even insurmountable current.
Without a doubt, there’s plenty to rethink. But in the places where we dedicated resources and campaigned robustly, it appears we did stop the backslide, and we did have important wins.
As a full picture of this election emerges, we’ll surely have tough conversations about how to better build political power for reproductive freedom.
This data indicates that there is a path forward, even in what feels like a very dark moment, and we’re going to travel it together.
Wishing you peace and rest this weekend,
The Vote Pro-Choice Team
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