The GOP’s terrible, no good, very bad week

The news had all been bad for the Democrats — until it wasn’t. Recent polling has shown President Joe Biden’s approval drifting downwards and, most worryingly, below Donald Trump’s in five out of six battleground states. This led to the slightly belated realisation among senior party figures that it might have been a good idea to come up with an alternative to an increasingly shaky-looking (in every sense) candidate whose 2020 victory is thought of as a greatly successful compromise. Then came Tuesday.

Enter… women

There was a flurry of gubernatorial, state legislature, mayoral and other local office elections, as well as a series of citizen initiatives. The Democrats greatly outperformed expectations — and it seems to largely have come down to reproductive rights. More than a year after Roe vs Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court and state legislatures set about dismantling access to abortion, voters, even in largely conservative states, have responded.

Andy Beshear, the incumbent Democratic governor in Kentucky, the most crimson red of states, easily beat Daniel Cameron, his MAGA-endorsed opponent. Beshear’s campaign largely centred on painting Cameron as an extremist on abortion.