According to legal experts who spoke to Newsweek, former President Donald Trump’s appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court could wind up costing him the election.
Trump was already campaigning in what was anticipated to be a tight election. However, the outlet claimed that the Republican nominee’s hopes for a second term could be in jeopardy due to the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris is now leading the Democratic ticket and the Dobbs decision is currently in effect.
Trump’s appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court cemented its conservative supermajority. It was this group of six conservative justices who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade with their 2022 Dobbs decision.
Newsweek added: “The rollback on reproductive rights sparked national outcry in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling, but it was over the next two years that voters made it clear they were upset with the court’s conservative justices. At the ballot box, voters, even in ruby red states, resoundingly rejected amendments that challenged the right to an abortion, while emphatically supporting those that codified that right into law. In November, it will be Trump’s turn to face the angry voters.”
Lanae Erickson, senior vice president for social policy, education, and politics at Third Way, told Newsweek that in such a close race, any issue could potentially sway the election. However, she suggested that the Dobbs decision might be the most significant factor.
“Every single time abortion rights have been on the ballot since Dobbs, voters have sided with reproductive freedom, and Democrats have overperformed,” Erickson said, though there could have been other factors — frustration with Trump, a lack of excitement over GOP candidates, and others — that made more of a difference to voters.
“The key areas where abortion will have an impact with these [educated female] voters are the affluent suburbs of major cities in swing states—suburban Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Milwaukee and Madison, Atlanta, Phoenix and Las Vegas,” political expert Steve Schier told the outlet.
Schier also noted that abortion issues are likely to benefit Harris more in urban swing states. According to the 2020 Census, urban swing states include Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Strategist Jay Townsend told the outlet that if Harris wins in November, “reproductive freedom will be one of the reasons [why.]”
“The only way pro-choice voters get what they want is by voting for Harris. And most of them rightly believe that Trump took that right away with his Supreme Court picks,” Townsend said. “Pro-choice voters are also a larger group than fervent pro-life voters. The math works for Harris and doesn’t for Trump.”
“Trump handed Harris a gift during his first term. It would be foolish for her to squander it,” he added.
Meanwhile, Harris and Democrats have repeated false statements regarding Trump’s position on the issue. Trump has frequently said he is against a national abortion ban because he believes that the Supreme Court got it right and returned the issue to the states where it resided before the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. He has also said that he supports a 15-week limit on abortion, which is in line with most Americans, according to polling.
Still, the economy and personal finances are much more important to a vast majority of Americans under the Biden-Harris regime, according to multiple surveys.
Nearly 40% of Americans are worried about being able to pay all of their bills on time, a higher percentage than during the Great Recession of 2008-09, one recent survey noted.
A CNN poll revealed that 39% of Americans are concerned about consistently paying their bills, a 33% increase from the peak of Bidenflation and exceeding the 37% during the 2008 crisis, when unemployment was nearly 10%, the outlet reported, citing the polling results.
Inflation during the Biden-Harris administration has reached new heights in the modern era, and while it has eased somewhat in recent months, it remains stubbornly high, raising the costs of food, gasoline, housing, and other basic amenities like utilities. CNN added that “consumers are still trying to catch up to the price spikes of the last few years.”
