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Joe Biden’s party notched two big electoral victories on Tuesday as Democratic governor Andy Beshear clinched re-election in Kentucky and Ohio voters backed a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights in the state’s constitution.
Beshear secured a second term in a Republican state where former president Donald Trump defeated Biden by a 26-point margin in 2020. The Associated Press projected that Beshear had defeated his up-and-coming Republican opponent, Daniel Cameron, who was endorsed by Trump, just two hours after the polls closed in Kentucky.
The White House later said that Biden had called Beshear to congratulate him on his victory.
Voters in Ohio — an increasingly Republican state that Trump won by eight points in 2020 — appeared to overwhelmingly back a ballot measure that codified the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution.
The ballot measure came after Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, signed into law a so-called heartbeat bill that banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, when many women do not yet know they are pregnant.
The result in Ohio is the latest example of voters rejecting restrictive abortion policies after the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe vs Wade, which enshrined the legal right to the procedure at the federal level.
Biden issued a statement celebrating the result in Ohio, saying “Americans once again voted to protect their fundamental freedoms,” and calling Republicans’ “extreme and dangerous” abortion positions “out of step with the vast majority of Americans”.
The off-year election results in Kentucky and Ohio will buoy Democrats who have faced declining approval ratings and poll numbers for Biden as he gears up for a tough re-election contest in 2024.
With one year to go until the presidential vote, a New York Times/Siena College poll out this week showed Biden losing to Trump in five of the six swing states that are likely to determine the outcome. The numbers prompted hand-wringing among Democrats who have privately fretted about Biden’s age and apparent electoral weaknesses.
Biden rejected the polls in a social media post late on Tuesday, saying: “Across the country tonight, democracy won and MAGA lost. Voters vote. Polls don’t. Now let’s go win next year.”
Elsewhere, a battle for control of the state legislature in Virginia remained too close to call on Tuesday night. The Virginia elections were set to deliver either a big win or a bitter defeat for its Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin.
Abortion may play a role in deciding the results in Virginia too, where Youngkin has tried to chart a more moderate path by promoting a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions.
Youngkin, a former Carlyle executive who was elected governor with little political experience in 2021, has become a favourite for the Republican donor class, who have urged him to launch a late push to challenge Trump for the party’s presidential nomination.
Despite his mounting legal troubles, Trump remains the undisputed frontrunner among the Republicans vying for the party’s nomination in a primary process that will start in earnest in January, with the Iowa caucuses.
Trump will again skip a televised debate with Republican candidates on Wednesday night, and instead hold a rally with supporters in Miami, Florida.