A new ad from the Democratic nominee in the Virginia gubernatorial election slams GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears for her longstanding opposition to abortion rights, a sign Democrats are hopeful that support for abortion rights can still win votes more than three years after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade.
The ad from former Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s campaign attacks Earle-Sears for supporting a “near total ban with no exceptions for rape and incest.” It uses audio of Earl-Sears speaking at the 2022 March For Life, when she declared: “We know abortion is wicked.”
Spanberger is a clear but not overwhelming favorite in the general election, which will take place in November. Earle-Sears’ conservative views on social issues, along with her unwillingness to meaningfully break with President Donald Trump, have placed the Republican out of step with an electorate expected to be strongly motivated by backlash to the incumbent president.
Abortion was a significant and winning issue for Democrats in the 2022 midterms, which took place in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. But the party’s hopes it could prove decisive in the 2024 presidential election were ill-founded, as Trump managed to muddy the waters on the issue by promising to leave abortion rights up to the states.
