In an attempt to block an abortion rights initiative from passing in November, Ohio Republicans crafted a constitutional amendment making it harder for voters to pass constitutional amendments. They pushed it through to the ballot, and brought it to a vote on the kind of typically low-turnout August election day that usually favors Republicans. They lost, big time, and the excuses and recriminations are flowing freely.
“One thing that hurt us in the election was the length of time of the campaign,” state Senate President Matt Huffman said. “Until May 10, we didn’t know there was a campaign,” he complained. “So it took us a long time to put the campaign together to execute the campaign.”
It’s worth noting here that, by definition, the people who initiated the question—his people—had longer to plan and execute the campaign than the other side.
Huffman was also deeply disappointed with Republicans who didn’t rally to the cause. “There were some key folks on our side who actively opposed this, some pretty vociferously,” he said, “and then there were key Republicans who simply didn’t support it who should have been doing to also.”
While Huffman was directly talking there about high-profile Republicans like former Gov. John Kasich, he’s also telling on himself: The results of the vote show that lots of Republican voters opposed it. It kind of misses the point to argue that it would have succeeded if people had supported it who didn’t: This was an unpopular question. Most of the state’s most powerful Republicans, including Sen. J.D. Vance, Gov. Mike DeWine, and Rep. Jim Jordan, strongly supported Issue 1. Voters rejected it.
Huffman and other supporters of Issue 1, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, also blamed out-of-state spending by opponents of the amendment for its defeat, conveniently ignoring that their side’s major funder was a billionaire from Illinois.
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LaRose had tried to boost his own Senate hopes by aggressively backing the campaign for Issue 1, but in the final days of the campaign, as things were looking bad for them, he started trying to paint his Senate primary rivals as not having done enough to help. But LaRose’s own words, early on, had been among the most damaging to his cause.
“This is 100% about keeping a radical, pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution,” LaRose said in June, giving opponents of the measure exactly the evidence they needed to mobilize voters in defense of abortion rights. LaRose’s words were a powerful message—for the other side, and no amount of whining that his opponents didn’t work as hard as he did will cover up the stench of the loss.
The fight wasn’t only about abortion, though, even if that was the immediate reason for Republicans to put it on the ballot now, before a November abortion rights vote (and one on marijuana legalization). In the longer run, Republicans wanted to use the higher threshold for amending the state constitution to block all sorts of issues on which they are further to the right than their voters. In 2024, an anti-gerrymandering effort and a minimum wage increase could be on the ballot. That’s why Huffman suggested that Republicans were likely to come back for another try at making it harder to pass such initiatives. LaRose, too, went on Fox News Wednesday morning and insisted, “the war continues. I’ve just begun to fight.”
That said, this vote is another sign that abortion is a key issue for 2024 as it was in 2022, showing just how wrong major media outlets were about its importance to voters and just how wrong Republicans continue to be as they insist that Democrats are the extremists, actually, and that one of these days they will find a message that gets through to voters. Sorry, guys, but no. Voters see that you want to take their rights, and they don’t like it. You can’t finesse that message enough to make it a winning one.
“One thing that hurt us in the election was the length of time of the campaign,” state Senate President Matt Huffman said. “Until May 10, we didn’t know there was a campaign,” he complained. “So it took us a long time to put the campaign together to execute the campaign.”
It’s worth noting here that, by definition, the people who initiated the question—his people—had longer to plan and execute the campaign than the other side.
Huffman was also deeply disappointed with Republicans who didn’t rally to the cause. “There were some key folks on our side who actively opposed this, some pretty vociferously,” he said, “and then there were key Republicans who simply didn’t support it who should have been doing to also.”
While Huffman was directly talking there about high-profile Republicans like former Gov. John Kasich, he’s also telling on himself: The results of the vote show that lots of Republican voters opposed it. It kind of misses the point to argue that it would have succeeded if people had supported it who didn’t: This was an unpopular question. Most of the state’s most powerful Republicans, including Sen. J.D. Vance, Gov. Mike DeWine, and Rep. Jim Jordan, strongly supported Issue 1. Voters rejected it.
Huffman and other supporters of Issue 1, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, also blamed out-of-state spending by opponents of the amendment for its defeat, conveniently ignoring that their side’s major funder was a billionaire from Illinois.
Campaign Action
LaRose had tried to boost his own Senate hopes by aggressively backing the campaign for Issue 1, but in the final days of the campaign, as things were looking bad for them, he started trying to paint his Senate primary rivals as not having done enough to help. But LaRose’s own words, early on, had been among the most damaging to his cause.
“This is 100% about keeping a radical, pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution,” LaRose said in June, giving opponents of the measure exactly the evidence they needed to mobilize voters in defense of abortion rights. LaRose’s words were a powerful message—for the other side, and no amount of whining that his opponents didn’t work as hard as he did will cover up the stench of the loss.
The fight wasn’t only about abortion, though, even if that was the immediate reason for Republicans to put it on the ballot now, before a November abortion rights vote (and one on marijuana legalization). In the longer run, Republicans wanted to use the higher threshold for amending the state constitution to block all sorts of issues on which they are further to the right than their voters. In 2024, an anti-gerrymandering effort and a minimum wage increase could be on the ballot. That’s why Huffman suggested that Republicans were likely to come back for another try at making it harder to pass such initiatives. LaRose, too, went on Fox News Wednesday morning and insisted, “the war continues. I’ve just begun to fight.”
That said, this vote is another sign that abortion is a key issue for 2024 as it was in 2022, showing just how wrong major media outlets were about its importance to voters and just how wrong Republicans continue to be as they insist that Democrats are the extremists, actually, and that one of these days they will find a message that gets through to voters. Sorry, guys, but no. Voters see that you want to take their rights, and they don’t like it. You can’t finesse that message enough to make it a winning one.