Momentous and tragic events are driving public attention back toward abortion rights and gun control, two issues that keyed the Democratic advance in well-educated suburbs over the past generation. And that could create the Democrats’ best chance of defending those gains in the stormy environment of the 2022 midterm elections. …
Although the horrific Buffalo and Uvalde massacres, and the pending Supreme Court decision on Roe, could shift the public’s focus, polls make clear that Democrats still have work to do in persuading voters to focus more on these issues this year. In the recent Public Policy Institute of California poll, for example, just 2% of California voters picked abortion as their top concern, compared with 24% who identified jobs, the economy or inflation. In the May CNN survey, half of the minority of adults who wanted to overturn Roe said they were extremely or very enthusiastic about voting in November, compared with less than two-fifths of those who opposed reversing the decision. …
Most analysts in both parties agree that so many voters are expressing unhappiness over the country’s direction that Republicans are likely to post significant gains in November no matter how much attention shifts from the economy to abortion rights and gun control. The real issue isn’t whether Democrats can reverse that wave, it’s whether they can blunt it by holding on to some of the white-collar suburban voters who looked ready to move back toward the GOP after stampeding away from the party under Trump. CONTINUED
Ronald Brownstein, CNN
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