Democrats for the last month have been too busy fighting over whether President Joe Biden should lead the ticket to keep voters’ attention on abortion. Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to bring the focus back.
On Monday, Harris told campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware, that she would prevent Republicans from enacting a national ban because “the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.” On Tuesday, she concluded a rally in a Milwaukee suburb by promising to sign legislation that would “restore reproductive freedoms.” And on Wednesday, the Harris campaign said it plans to counter former President Donald Trump’s rally in Charlotte with an abortion-focused event in North Carolina featuring Hadley Duvall, a Kentucky woman who was raped by her stepfather when she was 12.
Democrats have made abortion rights a cornerstone of the 2024 campaign, but Biden’s disastrous debate and a month’s worth of questions over whether his campaign could continue sidelined the issue that the party has used to boost their electoral prospects since Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago.
As Harris begins to delineate herself as a presumptive presidential nominee rather than Biden’s running mate, she is leaning into abortion to mobilize voters as she builds out the rest of her policy platform.
“We who believe in reproductive freedom will stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans, because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” Harris said at the Tuesday rally. “And when Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United States I will sign it into law.”
Trump has said abortion rights should be left to the states, attempting to neutralize Democrats’ attacks. Abortion was barely mentioned at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, and the GOP recently removed calls for a national ban from its party platform. Harris, even before becoming the presumptive nominee, argued that Trump is responsible for every state abortion ban and owns the suffering of patients unable to access the procedure. And she has long been more comfortable than Biden talking about the issue, from using the word “abortion” when campaigning to becoming the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic in March.
“Having her at the top of the ticket, with her proven record, with her authenticity on this issue, with her passion and with her prosecutorial skills, going after the guy — the criminal — who’s responsible for this crisis, it’s already so energizing,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of Reproductive Freedom for All, which endorsed Harris on Sunday. “It’s going to make sure this issue is front and center for the election, as it should be, because it’s the top persuasion issue of this election.”
Reproductive Freedom For All launched its first TV and digital ad in support of Harris this week, which features a clip of the candidate talking about voters’ power to push back against abortion bans. The six-figure ad buy, shared exclusively with POLITICO, is part of the group’s planned $2 million campaign targeting voters under 35 and people of color.
Both abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups say they are eager to have Harris bring the topic back into the spotlight and force GOP candidates to respond.
While abortion-rights groups expect Harris to pursue more progressive policies on abortion than Biden, she so far only pledged to sign legislation protecting “reproductive freedoms,” without providing further detail. Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment seeking clarification.
Anti-abortion groups that have long been frustrated at Republicans’ post-Roe position on abortion are equally enthused by Harris’ elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket. They believe they can use her record of aggressive action on reproductive rights — as an attorney general, senator and vice president — to paint her as extreme in a way that they couldn’t with Biden.
“We find Kamala to be a larger threat to the life cause than Joe Biden,” said John Mize, president of Americans United for Life. “In a perverse way, it gives the pro-life movement a bit more juice, or a bit more energy, to combat the radical agenda.”
Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the organization plans to highlight Harris’ role as “Biden’s abortion czar” — including her nationwide reproductive rights tour — as part of its $92 million campaign across battleground states and those with abortion-rights measures on their ballots.
Some anti-abortion activists frustrated by many Republicans’ avoidance of the issue after the fall of Roe v. Wade, and particularly with the issue’s near-total absence at the recent Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, said they expected Harris’ candidacy to pressure Republican candidates to more directly articulate where they stand.
“There’s going to be hundreds of millions of dollars spent on abortion advertising. So does the GOP intend to say nothing?” said Kristi Hamrick, the chief policy strategist for Students for Life of America. “The Republicans are going to need to answer. They’re going to need to be fearless. They’re going to need to be ready.”
But abortion-rights proponents in states where protections for the procedure are or could be on the ballot believe they will see the opposite effect. Voters who were unimpressed by Biden, they hope, will be energized and excited by Harris’ candidacy and buoy ballot measures in states like Nebraska.
“She’s a better messenger than Biden on abortion. When you hear Biden talk about abortion you get the impression that he is not actually a supporter of abortion rights,” said Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt, an independent. “We need a candidate who can speak soberly and seriously and just say like, ‘What the fuck are we doing, what the hell are we doing in this country that this has become so normalized?’”
Some strategists, however, are unconvinced that Harris’ candidacy will change the underlying dynamics of the race, arguing that Biden had already made abortion rights a pillar of his reelection campaign and most voters who care about the issue have made up their minds.
“Abortion politics is already baked into the 2024 presidential sweepstakes, and that does not change because Kamala Harris may lead the ticket,” said Stan Barnes, a political consultant and former GOP state representative from Arizona. “Those who care most ardently about that topic and want to vote their conscience already know what they’re doing. It’s not going to move the needle.”
