Sherrill is generally regarded as a significant favorite against DeGroot, a first-time candidate who won the Republican primary in an upset. Though the current lines of the 11th district are highly competitive, the new map that will go into effect for this election makes the district significantly more Democratic. Democrats think, or perhaps hope, that the overturning of Roe v. Wade will drive women and other pro-choice individuals to the polls in three months.

Abortion polling shows time and again that the question of abortion shows the vast majority of America to be purple-to-blue favoring legality and access. We do not live in a nation of “red” and “blue” geographies according to states; we live in a nation of big and loud “red” states— bolstered by Trump’s 2020 Census finagling —that have been representationally manipulated by Republicans who foresaw that they were on the losing end of progress, and who have not been meaningfully opposed in that aim because Democrats are maddeningly committed to playing by the rules in a game where the opposing team is cheating outright. Donald Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 with the help of voter-suppression tactics, and it is his Supreme Court that overturned Roe . Either everyone in the U.S. bears responsibility for that, or none of us does. (Spoiler: We all do.)Sherrill seemed to be referencing her opponent, former Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Paul DeGroot, who has said he agrees with the Supreme Court’s decision but who has also called himself a “pro-choice Republican.” In fact, a delegation from DeGroot’s campaign came to today’s rally, though the candidate himself was unable to attend.

Even more troubling for Mitch McConnell and the GOP senate leadership are the numbers out of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In the Badger State, incumbent Ron Johnson, who has a 47 percent unfavorable rating, is trailing his opponent Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes by seven points. These numbers are particularly stark among independents, who favor Barnes by 14 points. Johnson recently came under fire for downplaying the threat of the loss of abortion rights in his state. “It might be a little messy for some people, but abortion is not going away,” he said, saying that driving across state lines to Illinois would likely be an option. “I just don’t think this is going to be the big political issue everybody thinks it is, because it’s not going to be that big a change.” He appears to be very wrong on this point.Another unlikely victory came in an August special election in upstate New York’s 19th congressional district. Democrat Pat Ryan, running with a near singular focus on abortion rights, edged out his Republican opponent in a swing district where President Biden won only narrow support in 2020.

In the Keystone State, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who already seems out-of-touch with his recent comments about his 10 houses and with his disastrous shopping trip to “Wegmer’s” (he meant either Wegman’s or Redner’s,) for “crudités” (he meant “veggie platter”), is down by 11 points to the popular and affable Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. Oz’s position on abortion isn’t helping. According to PolitiFact , Oz supported the overturning of Roe and favors states setting their own abortion policies. That has real ramifications in Pennsylvania, where extremist GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano could sign abortion restrictions enacted by the Republican controlled legislature if elected. We can observe many of the same habits when the press covers elections. And given that this election in particular could be understood as a protest vote — protesting the assault on women's rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants' rights, democratic rights, etc. — it makes sense to think of this election more in terms of a mass movement than as an example of democracy as usual.No. 10 on Moore's list is Mathew DePerno, Republican candidate for attorney general in Michigan. Like nine other candidates in the 30 state attorney general races this fall, DePerno is an election denier. But he's not just a common, garden-variety election denier; he was allegedly personally involved in a voting system breach. That's right: the Republican candidate who hopes to become Michigan's top law enforcement official is under investigation by the current attorney general for "unauthorized access to voting equipment." NYT: Our analysis shows that the Kansas vote on abortion rights would be approved by voters in all but 7 states. The Republican Party chose to commit a mass suicide of epic proportions with its allegiance to Trump. They were so stupefyingly insane falling for a con man’s con, not realizing how much they now resembled a moronic cult, instead of a political party. Even tykes at the kids table could tell that the Grandpa they loved was now nuts. And while we have always had a lot of lunatics in our country, no sane person ever wants to be in a cult or to be seen acting like a mindless blubbering babbling idiot who has followed Dear Leader right off the cliff. There may be 64 million of them — and granted that’s a lot of lunatics running loose — but there is some comfort knowing that there are still 270 million of us who will never drink the Kool-Aid.