Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Tuesday that right-leaning Florida will be in play in November, in part because of its abortion ballot measure.
Along with “a very key Senate race here with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell," a supporter of reproductive rights, issues on the ballot will make Florida competitive, she said during a Tuesday morning appearance on CNN.
“We've got a number of other issues, including protecting Medicare, that people in Florida care a lot about,” she continued. “I think you're going to see Florida in play, and an amendment for [reproductive rights] puts it on the map in a big way.”
Floridians will be able to vote on a ballot measure that, if passed, would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. In order to pass, it needs to get 60 percent support from state residents. A poll released in mid-August found that 56 percent of Sunshine State voters support the proposed amendment.
Klobuchar argued the success Democrats have seen with abortion ballot measures in other states since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade proves that people will vote in favor of reproductive rights even when they disagree with the proposal personally.
“Because what we have seen in places like Kansas, where that was the first test state, people turned out in droves to vote to protect a woman's right to make their own health care decisions,” she said. “And you go to Ohio by 13 points, that ballot measure in Ohio, Wisconsin Supreme Court, Kentucky governor's race. Look at these states. These are red states. Virginia in the state legislative races. Alaska in a congressional race.”
“It does not matter where you are in the country, including Florida, people at margins of 70 percent, 80 percent are on the side of women being able to make their own health care decisions. Even if they may have their own views on abortion, they don’t think they should be putting them on somewhere else.”
President Biden lost Florida to former President Trump in 2020 by more than 300,000 votes. Trump also won the state in 2016. The state has about a million more registered Republicans than Democrats. A USA Today/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV poll released in mid-August found Vice President Harris running 5 percent behind Trump, just outside the margin of error.
“One out of three women are now living in states with extreme abortion bans,” she said. “You have women bleeding out in parking lots, you have states that are looking at Texas in a court case tried to do limiting mifepristone. IVF is at risk, birth control. All of this will be on the ballot in November.”
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