Vote 4 Change has identified 23 states with Governor races, State Senate, and State Houses races which could have significant impact on Abortion reform and Voter Rights. If you live in any of these states, voting in the 2022 Midterm elections will be the most important vote you may ever cast.
Specifically on the ballot:
Governor races & down ballot senate & house races [23 key races]
9 Republican Incumbents
6 states GOP have small margin of control of Senate AZ, FL, GA, NH, SC, TX
4 Open seats with NO incumbents running AK, AR, AZ, IN, OR, PA
AZ GOP has small margins of control in both houses
PA GOP has a small margin of control in the Senate
5 Democratic Incumbents CO, CT, IA, ME, MI, MN, NV, NY, WI
ME Democrats have small margins of control in both houses
MN GOP have small margin in the Senate & Dems have a small margin in the House
NV democrats have a small margin control in both houses
State House & Senate races in states with small partisan margins of control
CO, CT & OR Dems have a small margin in the Senate & need to maintain to keep abortion legal
NJ & WA Democrats have a small margins of control in both houses & need to maintain to keep abortion legal
Why is this important you ask? Governors in most states have the ability to veto laws passed by the state legislative chambers. Partisan control of each house will have the advantage in writing and ultimately passing future legislation for each state, specifically Abortion and voter suppression laws.
In another blog, we wrote about the correlation between Abortion laws and which party controls the state houses. It’s no coincidence that 86% of the 15 states with the highest maternal deaths per 100 births [as reported by WorldPopulationReview.com] also ban or about to severely restrict access to abortions. By contrast states with more permissive abortions laws have much lower maternal morality rates. PEW states that some “research suggests a connection between the denial of abortion services and maternal health.” All states that ban abortions, who have trigger laws to ban abortions, or are in legal battles to ban abortions BOTH state houses are under GOP control.
What does voter suppression look like? Some states have adopted a mix of laws; some make voting easier and some make it more difficult. Well before the 2020 election, former President Trump was attacking these voting changes many put in place because of the pandemic—asserting, among other things, that foreign countries would be able to print ballots and mail them in. Fast forward to 2022, Trump continues to attack voting rules and many other MAGA GOP are relentlessly assaulting the integrity of the election before it even happens. During 2020 to 2021 state legislatures considered an unprecedented amount of voting legislation.
Discriminatory voter ID laws
Excessive & exhaustive voter registration requirements
Last-minute Election Day barriers
Elimination of same day voting registration
Elimination of voting locations in underserved communities
Unjust voter purges
Attempts to limit access to early and mail-in voting
New criminal laws aimed at election poll workers
When deciding Who Should I Vote for? Go to www.vote4change.info a website packed with voting resources, US legislator voting records, plus current Congress/Senate election ballots to help Americans to cast informed votes.
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