OLYMPIA — Washingtonians, get ready to hear a whole lot about abortion.
Between now and this November, Democrats plan to relentlessly hit Republicans on the issue during the first major election since the Supreme Court invalidated Roe v. Wade.
A new poll of the state's likely voters shows why this strategy is expected to be one of the dominant themes of the 2024 campaign for president, governor and beyond.
Forty-nine percent of respondents to the WA Poll said they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports federal restrictions on abortions.
And only 20% said it made them more likely to support such candidates.
What role abortion will play for WA voters
This is in a state where the Legislature and the governor quickly moved to protect abortion rights after the Supreme Court ruling allowed individual states to limit abortion access. Gov. Jay Inslee stockpiled mifepristone pills.
It is a state where 73% of residents say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
So it isn't surprising that Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who is running for governor, has an attack ad aimed at his leading Republican rival, Dave Reichert, starring Dr. Erin Berry, an OB-GYN. The ad criticizes votes Reichert made while he was a member of Congress.
Reichert's campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to TV stations airing the ads last week, saying the ad misrepresented his position and misconstrued the legislation he voted for.
Reichert has taken pains to state publicly he won't change state law on abortion despite his belief that "life begins in the womb."
"I want you to know where I stand on abortion," Reichert said in an early June video. "As governor, I will not change Washington law on this issue because I do not believe any politician, regardless of personal belief, has the right to make that decision for any woman."
The WA Poll results revealed stark partisan differences. A strong majority of Democrats, 68%, said they were less likely to support such a candidate, compared with 15% of Republicans. For independents, 53% were less likely to vote for someone who favored abortion restrictions.
The results also revealed a split along gender lines, with 58% of women saying they were less likely to vote for a candidate supporting such restrictions compared to 42% of men.
The WA Poll was conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of The Seattle Times in partnership with KING 5 and the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public.
It included 708 likely voters and was held between July 10 and 13, before President Joe Biden announced he wouldn't seek a second term and before former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt.
Nationally, the share of voters focused on a politician's stance on abortion is rising, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.
In 2018, about 21% of Americans said they would only vote for candidates who shared their views on abortion. In 2023, that figure jumped to 36%.
Democrats, and women, are more likely to say they'd only vote for a candidate who shares their views on the issue, according to the PRRI survey.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, held her first political rally Thursday. The crowd roared when she said, "We'll stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do."
The very same day, Doug Emhoff, Harris' husband, visited an abortion clinic in northern Virginia.
Rep. Kristine Reeves, D-Federal Way — the interim chair of Washington's Legislative Black Caucus, which endorsed Harris on Sunday — said the vice president "brings a level of authenticity" to the issue of abortion.
"She understands that issue personally and intimately in a way that maybe her colleagues don't," Reeves said. "And so, what I'm most excited about is hopefully a much more bold conversation."
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