As Anna mentioned, there are a couple of abortion-related ballot initiatives are up for a vote this year. But even voters who aren’t in those states may be thinking about abortion issues when they head to the polls. For Republicans, abortion has been a galvanizing issue for a long time, but as FiveThirtyEight contributor Daniel Cox wrote last week, there are signs that Democrats are unusually motivated by abortion this year. For example, a recent Pew poll found that 61 percent of Democrats say abortion is very important to their vote this year, compared to only 38 percent of Democratic voters who said the same in 2008.
So what’s behind that huge shift? The confirmation battle over Justice Brett Kavanaugh led many to speculate that Roe v. Wade could be at risk. But Democrats also may be concerned because Republican-led state legislatures have been steadily chipping away at abortion access for the past eight years, with many clinics closing as a result. One question today is whether this heightened concern about abortion issues will help Democratic candidates at the polls.