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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOhio's voters are moderate, but its legislature is to the right of South Carolina's
Ohios voters are moderate, but its legislature is to the right of South Carolinas
As the Supreme Court anticipated when it overturned Roe v. Wade, the battle over abortion rights is now being waged state by state. Nowhere is the fight more intense than in Ohio, which has long been considered a national bellwether. The state helped secure the Presidential victories of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, then went for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Its residents tend to be politically moderate, and polls consistently show that a majority of Ohio voters support legal access to abortion, particularly for victims of rape and incest. Yet, as the recent ordeal of a pregnant ten-year-old rape victim has illustrated, Ohios state legislature has become radically out of synch with its constituents. In June, the states General Assembly instituted an abortion ban so extreme that the girl was forced to travel to Indiana to terminate her pregnancy. In early July, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the Indiana obstetrician who treated the child, told me that she had a message for Ohios legislature: This is your fault!
Longtime Ohio politicians have been shocked by the states transformation into a center of extremist legislation, not just on abortion but on such divisive issues as guns and transgender rights. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who served as governor between 2007 and 2011, told me, The legislature is as barbaric, primitive, and Neanderthal as any in the country. Its really troubling.
According to David Niven, a political-science professor at the University of Cincinnati, a 2020 survey indicated that less than fourteen per cent of Ohioans support banning all abortions without exceptions for rape and incest. And a 2019 Quinnipiac University poll showed that only thirty-nine per cent of Ohio voters supported the kind of heartbeat law that the legislature passed. But the Democrats in the Ohio legislature had no way to mount resistance: since 2012, the Republicans have had a veto-proof super-majority in both chambers.
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Click, who is a close ally of the Republican congressman Jim Jordan, is one of Ohios most extreme legislators, but hes hardly out of place among the General Assemblys increasingly radical Republican majority. Niven, the University of Cincinnati professor, told me that, according to one study, the laws being passed by Ohios statehouse place it to the right of the deeply conservative legislature in SouthCarolina. How did this happen, given that most Ohio voters are not ultra-conservatives? Its all about gerrymandering, Niven told me. The legislative-district maps in Ohio have been deliberately drawn so that many Republicans effectively cannot lose, all but insuring that the Party has a veto-proof super-majority. As a result, the only contests most Republican incumbents need worry about are the primariesand, because hard-core partisans dominate the vote in those contests, the sole threat most Republican incumbents face is the possibility of being outflanked by a rival even farther to the right.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/state-legislatures-are-torching-democracy
LastDemocratInSC
(3,647 posts)That's an accurate description for many state legislatures.
Demsrule86
(68,613 posts)Those districts are meant to enhance Republicans' chances but if Republican women in those districts vote against the Roe debacle and vote for Democrats which could happen... they could lose. The danger is that some will believe it is impossible to win anymore and we need some new leaders in the Ohio Democratic Party too.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)appalachiablue
(41,154 posts)PatSeg
(47,529 posts)pay much attention to state and local government, making it easy for extremists to take over.