Abortion rights at center of Tuesday's Ohio, Virginia elections
investing.comBy Joseph Ax
(Reuters) — Abortion will once again be on the ballot on Tuesday, as Ohio residents vote on whether to guarantee abortion rights and Virginia voters decide whether to give Republicans the power to impose new limits on the procedure.
With the first presidential nominating contest in Iowa less than 10 weeks away, national Republicans and Democrats are closely watching Tuesday's races for clues about where the U.S. electorate stands ahead of the 2024 campaign for both the White House and Congress.
For Democrats, the elections in Ohio and Virginia will assess whether abortion remains as politically potent as it was in the 2022 midterm elections, when voter anger over the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to eliminate a nationwide right helped the party avoid a Republican landslide.
For Republicans, the two states provide strategic testing grounds after the party struggled to identify a winning message on the subject last year.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Kentucky and Mississippi will elect governors, while voters across the country will choose mayors and other local elected officials.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, one of a handful of Democrats to lead a state that voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, is defying his home state's conservative lean once again in his re-election campaign.
Beshear faces Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who would be Kentucky's first Black governor. Despite his party affiliation, Beshear enjoys strong approval ratings after leading the state through the coronavirus pandemic and a series of natural disasters while overseeing economic growth.
In Mississippi, Republican Governor Tate Reeves is seeking another four-year term. His Democratic
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