Democrats are dusting off the same playbook that scored the party mid-term wins across the country by seizing on abortion rights, and California’s most high-profile political figures are leading the campaign — both at home and in a half-dozen other states.
California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, along with Vice President and former California Sen. Kamala Harris, are doubling down on abortion rights, even as California remains one of the most pro-choice states in the country. It reflects a nationwide approach by the party to capitalize on what they say is an inevitable future of draconian reproductive rights rollbacks should Republicans return to the White House. It’s a fear that delivered Democrats crucial wins in 2022, and they’re betting it remains a powerful force for voter turnout even in deep-blue California where abortion is not on the ballot.
As the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade approaches, mobilization around abortion and reproductive rights has become an integral plank so enmeshed in the Democratic platform that California’s two most powerful state leaders are betting it will be a bulwark against a second Trump term, and the key to flipping several GOP-held California districts.
“I believe that if Trump were to win, he will support and advance a nationwide abortion ban. And that will impact California more than anyone else because we are the most populous state,” Kounalakis said. “Everywhere I go people are asking me, what can we do? What can we do?”
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While Newsom and Kounalakis brandish themselves as champions of abortion rights and continue to build the “sanctuary state” credo in California, their efforts are also raising their respective profiles: Kounalakis is running to take over the governor’s mansion in 2027, while Newsom is laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid.
