This is bad news for Beto O’Rourke. He has tried to play the abortion card but it’s not making a difference in Texas. This is from The Texas Tribune:

Polling shows that a majority of voters in Texas oppose the state’s near-total ban on abortion, and after a landslide victory for abortion access in conservative Kansas in August, many Democrats hoped the issue might mobilize enough voters to tip the 2022 elections in their favor.

But Texas has not seen the same surge in voter registrations as other states, and as of late August, voters ranked abortion as only the ninth-most-important problem facing the country, after inflation, the environment, gun control and immigration.

More importantly:

Texas did see a slight uptick in registered voters in the weeks after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, according to data provided by Derek Ryan, a Republican strategist and political data expert. About 40,000 more people were added to the rolls in the post-Roe period than during the same time frame in 2018.

So what’s going on?

First, it’s the economy, stupid (or inflation, stupid; or the border invasion, stupid; or the rampant crime, stupid). Everyone I talk to is complaining about the cost of everything going up. It’s the kind of “wallet” issue that overwhelms everything else. Abortion is having a hard time getting into the conversation because there are too many other issues on the table. People are worried: “57% See Depression Ahead”!

Secondly, the Democrats are beating up the Dobbs decision but not saying much about limits to abortion. The data shows that majority of people polled want legal access to abortion but restrictions on late term procedures. In a televised debate, Beto O’Rourke said that he wants to ‘return to Roe v. Wade.’ That’s nonsense, because no such thing is going to reach his desk if elected governor. (Do these politicians even understand the civic process?)

So abortion is not turning out to be what Texas Democrats were hoping for. That’s right, and their unwillingness to address the full issue, not just nostalgia over Roe, is hurting their side.

P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.