https://ift.tt/LMDPh6s in the U.S. state of Kansas have resoundingly upheld abortion rights in the first ballot measure since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 49-year-old national constitutional right to abortion and returned the issue to each of the country’s 50 states.
Polling had suggested that voters in the reliably conservative state might approve giving the legislature the right to overturn the state constitution’s provision guaranteeing that women can decide whether to end their pregnancies up to about 22 weeks of gestation.
Instead, voters flocked to the polls in summertime heat on Tuesday and upheld abortion rights by a 59%-to-41% margin after widespread door-to-door campaigns by both abortion supporters and opponents.
Elsewhere, candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump generally fared well in Republican primary elections to pick nominees for the November elections against Democratic challengers. The outcome displayed Trump’s continuing hold on his base of supporters as he hints broadly at another run for the presidency in 2024.
Several of the Republican winners adopted Trump’s debunked claims that he was cheated out of another term in the White House during his 2020 run for re-election.
In Arizona, Trump’s choice for a U.S. Senate seat, Blake Masters, won a primary, as did his pick for secretary of state, Mark Finchem, a 2020 election denier who has publicly acknowledged his affiliation with the far-right Oath Keepers militia, a group linked to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In vote-counting that is continuing, Trump’s choice for the Republican nominee in Arizona’s gubernatorial race, Kari Lake, has taken a narrow lead over Karrin Taylor Robson, the candidate backed by Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president.