Dear John,
With the 2022 midterm election now almost over, we can confidently say that women—especially young women—stopped the red wave. And we can expect they’ll continue to drive elections into the future until women’s full rights and equality are firmly guaranteed.
It was no surprise to us at Ms. that the abortion and women’s rights issues would dominate the midterms. Our polling of likely voters in battleground states (which was echoed by exit polls last month) had predicted that abortion and women’s rights would be one of the top issues for women – not to mention the top issues for young women.
Young women voters as a bloc were a powerhouse in November—voting decisively to pass pro-abortion rights measures in California, Michigan and Vermont and block anti-abortion ballot measures in Kentucky and Montana, as they had earlier this year in Kansas. What’s more, young women’s votes were decisive in electing Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and Katie Hobbs as governor in Arizona.
Significantly, our poll also found that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and abortion are connected in voters’ minds, with three-quarters of the women surveyed expressing their support for the ERA being added to the Constitution. Among young women voters, 72 percent said it was “personally” important to them now that various states are banning abortion. A majority of men also support adding the ERA to the Constitution.
As Congress debates which measures to take up during its lame duck session, women’s rights leaders have joined with allies in the House to urge the Senate leadership to schedule a vote to finally recognize the ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. You’ll remember the House has twice voted to recognize the ERA—but the measure has yet to be taken up in the Senate.
And of course, some races remain yet undecided—most notably in the state of Georgia, where a Dec. 6 runoff will decide whether Herschel Walker or Raphael Warnock will hold one of the state’s two Senate seats. While Democrats have already secured a majority in the Senate with the election of John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, the difference between a majority of 50 and of 51 is tremendous. If Warnock wins, Democrats will be able to hold a clear majority on committees, eliminating procedural roadblocks that come with tied votes and making it easier to advance legislation or nominees to the full Senate with only Democratic votes when necessary.
Finally, this week saw the Senate’s passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, which will help secure protections for marriage equality and interracial marriage in the face of looming threats from the Supreme Court. While the RFMA does not go as far to secure the protections as advocates wished—notably including an exemption for religious objections—the RFMA is still a step in the right direction.
