Democrats are hoping to win a tight governor’s race and keep control of the legislature in a state that has moved rapidly to the left. Democrats in Virginia and beyond are focusing in particular on suburban women, who played a large role in electing President Biden, but whose broader loyalty to his party is not assured. Even a number of women who said they favored Republicans noted that they also supported abortion rights — which may explain why G.O.P. candidates in Virginia have played down the issue, scrubbing anti-abortion comments from campaign websites and walking back some remarks. He affirmed that he supported a “pain-threshold bill,” which generally outlaws abortion after 20 weeks.

Source: New York Times September 19, 2021 17:37 UTC