These days there have been numerous allusions, once again, to the famous phrase of James Carville, former adviser to President Bill Clinton, with which he established a basic electoral principle: "It's the economy, stupid."
The expression was recovered in the United States in the days prior to these mid-term elections to underline that the Democrats were going to be hit by rampant inflation. And the polls have spoken.
Although the increase in prices weighed heavily (main concern, according to 32% of voters), in these first elections since the Supreme Court ruling, voters have offered a series of decisive victories for the right to abortion, second concern (27% ).
The decision of the Supreme Court, last June, to annul the historic sentence that guaranteed the right to abortion in the country since 1973 broke out this Tuesday as a decisive factor to go to vote this November.
In addition to being a major motivator for Democrats, California, Michigan and Vermont overwhelmingly backed measures that effectively make it impossible for state lawmakers to impose bans, once the Supreme Court opened the door to limitations.
The biggest surprise, however, has been in a state as conservative as Kentucky, where an anti-abortion amendment was defeated. This opens the way for the right to termination of pregnancy to be restored in a territory that has one of the most restrictive regulations.
The string of pro-abortion hits comes after the trend emerged in August. Then, two months after the Supreme Court ruling, voters in another conservative state like Kansas opposed an amendment similar to the one rejected in Kentucky.
From these results it can be concluded that the Republican legislators took advantage of the occasion to impose more restrictions, but a large part of the citizens observe the matter from another perspective. Exit polls indicate that six in 10 voters say abortion should be legal in most cases.
The matter goes beyond the vote on these proposals. Law played a relevant role in Democrat Kathy Hochul being the first woman elected governor of the state of New York, after holding office since the summer of 2021 due to the fall from grace of Andrew Cuomo.
According to the defenders of this right, this electoral appointment is a pronouncement that abortion, as a health care service, must be legal and accessible. 40% of voters claimed to be "angry" with the historic ruling in June.
