Democrats notch election wins in Kentucky and Ohio

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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…