Three takeaways after Americans head to the polls

Even though the White House wasn’t up for grabs — that will happen next year — Tuesday proved to be a big night for American politics.

Voters in some states went to the polls to decide their governor and who controls their legislature, while others considered changes to abortion and marijuana rights.

Democrats appeared to have much to celebrate, with particularly important victories in Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky.

But now that the ballots are being counted, here’s what we’ve learned so far from national elections in a dozen U.S. states.

Ohio voters who supported an amendment to the state constitution that would guarantee the right to abortion proved to be Tuesday’s most prominent example of how abortion remains a major issue in the UNITED STATES.

But a number of other votes show that this issue remains a motivating topic for American voters – and some saw Tuesday night as a litmus test for whether this issue would win as the US presidential election approaches. next year.

As a reminder, the United States Supreme Court struck down the nation’s right to abortion last year.

The takeaway from Ohio is that it wasn’t just Democrats who voted in favor of the abortion rights measure. One in five Republicans also voted yes to this measure, according to CBS, the BBC’s American partner.

“We go to bed knowing that we own our own bodies,” Dr. Marcel Azevedo, co-founder of Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, told a group of supporters after the measure passed.

Two separate Democratic gubernatorial candidacies in southern states, won largely by former President Donald Trump in 2020, illustrate the importance of abortion access in American electoral politics.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, made abortion access a central issue of his campaign and launched a re-election bid against Republican rival Daniel Cameron.

Mr. Beshear used abortion to hammer his opponent. He described Mr. Cameron, a rising star in the Republican Party, as a radical on the issue.

In Mississippi, Democrat Brandon Presley, a utility regulator and cousin of music icon Elvis Presley, was not so lucky. His anti-abortion stance may have hurt voter enthusiasm.

Democrats won key elections in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, where abortion again played a major role, including in Virginia’s congressional campaign.

Virginia Democrats are expected to retain limited control of the state Senate and take control of the House of Delegates, meaning the party can continue to block Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s plan to pursue tighter restrictions on abortion.

Governor Youngkin is considered another rising star in Republican politics, having won the Virginia governorship in 2021 without enlisting help from former President Donald Trump. He won support from moderates and independents in the suburbs when he first ran for the state’s top political office.

The fact that all nine LGBT candidates in Virginia’s legislative elections won their seats proved to be the key to Democrats’ success Tuesday. One of those victories belongs to Danica Roem, who will be the South’s first openly trans senator. She beat a candidate backed by Gov. Youngkin who made her opposition to trans issues a cornerstone of her campaign.

This is just one of many blows Governor Youngkin delivered Tuesday night.

Some Republicans hoped the former financier could free the party from Donald Trump’s grip in the coming years — hopes that are now likely dashed.

Mr. Trump currently leads polls for the 2024 Republican nomination, but some view Governor Youngkin as a potential challenger.

The Democrats’ big victory comes as President Joe Biden appears to be struggling to navigate a campaign a year after his re-election hopes.

Tuesday’s success will likely allow the president and his campaign team to catch their breath and refocus their attention. Abortion is one issue on which they could seek to score points against Mr. Trump.

Campaign officials certainly saw this as an opportunity to dismiss criticism of recent polls that showed President Biden lagging behind Mr. Trump.

“Voters are voting. The polls are not,” a senior campaign adviser told CBS News. The adviser added that Tuesday’s success had eased tensions within the presidential campaign.

As a teenager, Yusef Salaam was one of five black and Hispanic boys wrongly accused of raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989.

The case seized New York and the group became known as the Central Park Five. Former President Trump even waded into the matter at the time, calling for New York to adopt the death penalty after the attack.

Mr Salaam – who was 15 when he was arrested – was jailed for several years before a serial rapist confessed to the crime and the group’s convictions were overturned.

On Tuesday, the author and activist won a seat on the New York City Council.

“In my darkest moments, when the world seemed to be against the so-called Central Park Five, I never lost hope – and tonight, this victory represents hope for our Harlem community,” a- he declared.