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Why I’m Cheering Tuesday’s Results
I am overjoyed by the results of the midterm election so far, not just because there was no overwhelming Republican wave, but also because America rejected, generally speaking, the path to its own demise.It rejected punditry.The election underscored how meaningless and misleading so much of the prognosticating on competitive races has become. So much of it is just chatter, people guessing, people spinning data into hard facts.Too many pundits want to be the smart one who sees something in the numbers that others miss. They want to be diviners, but end up being deliverers of misinformation. And their misdirection is infectious. Group-think sets in as pundits begin to absorb and repeat what they’ve heard from other pundits. For the public, the preponderance of sources and repetition of the same tired points lends credence to assumptions that are baseless.We were led to believe that momentum had shifted decidedly toward Republicans in the last few weeks. It hadn’t. There was no Red Wave. There were no massive gains for Republicans. We are still waiting to see if they will take control of the House, and the Senate may stay in Democratic hands.We were led to believe that Hispanics were defecting from Democrats in shocking numbers. The truth appears to have been more nuanced. According to exit polls, which we always have to take with a grain of salt, the slippage may have been about 5 percent in some parts of the country, but some candidates (like Beto O’Rourke in Texas) held on to Hispanics at the same rate President Biden did in 2020, or even increased that level of support (like Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada).We were led to believe that Black men were also drifting away from the Democrats. That’s not entirely true. Look at Georgia, where the great fear was that Black men wouldn’t vote for Stacey Abrams: A slightly higher percentage voted for her in this election in that state than voted for Biden in 2020, according to exit polls.We were told that Biden and the Democrats had made a huge mistake by focusing so much attention on abortion and a fragile democracy at the expense of crime and the economy. That, too, was wrong. Abortion was a tremendously animating issue in this election, and voters rebuffed many prominent election deniers in the night’s biggest, most competitive races.In fact, you could say that voters rebuffed Trumpism itself — and the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It may be too optimistic to say the fever broke, but Tuesday night, we saw enough people in enough states shake it off, allowing us to imagine a day when Trump no longer dominates the Republican Party.That day may come soon. Ron DeSantis rode his horrendous “anti-woke” campaign to a solid victory in Florida, and, sensing Trump’s weakness, will most likely be emboldened in his efforts to challenge him in 2024. To be clear, DeSantis is no improvement from Trump. In many ways, he could be worse. But I also doubt that he can scale the theatrical intolerance he is practicing in Florida up into a national campaign capable of beating the Democrats.DeSantis is still fighting a battle against the 2020 summer of protests. That will feel incredibly stale and out of touch by 2024. His fame is rooted in bullying schoolteachers, students and librarians. And although I never underestimate the cynicism of many voters, Trump has a sinister charisma that DeSantis lacks. The camera hates DeSantis. I don’t believe he can exert the galvanizing effect that Trump could. And finally, as a person who strongly believes that Black people have a real chance to consolidate political power in Southern states and dramatically alter the political landscape, it was incredibly encouraging to see so many Black candidates come so close to victory (like Cheri Beasley in North Carolina) or even win (like Wes Moore in Maryland).The Black people in these states are feeling their power, and they are applying pressure at the polls. Do I believe Beasley — and other Black Democrats like Stacey Abrams — should have won this time? Yes. But am I also encouraged by what their narrow losses portend for the future? Absolutely.Black people keep moving from cities in the North and West back to the South. Eventually, in spite of voter suppression efforts, the hurdle will be cleared. There will be more candidates like Wes Moore, the first Black governor of his state in the South, and that is where the truly transformative change will begin.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and Instagram. More
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Democrats Hold Onto Contested State Legislative Chambers
Democrats made gains in state legislatures, including at least one Midwestern battleground state, while thwarting Republican efforts to flip chambers in the Mountain West and elsewhere. As results of statehouse races were still being counted in several states late Wednesday, experts said that Republicans’ efforts to expand their control of state legislative chambers appeared to have fallen short.In Michigan, Democrats had flipped at least one chamber of the State Legislature, the State Senate, while votes were still being counted in races for control of the state’s House of Representatives, as well as Minnesota’s State Senate.“Last night was a surprisingly good showing for Democrats in statehouses, especially since their gains combat the notion that the president’s party always loses ground during midterms,” said Wendy Underhill, director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legislatures.In Colorado, a state heavily targeted by Republicans, Democrats maintained their legislative majorities. And in North Carolina and Wisconsin, states with Democratic governors and Republican-held legislatures, Democrats fended off efforts by Republicans to win supermajorities, which would have given them veto override powers. Democrats also won full control of state government leadership in Massachusetts and Maryland — states where Democrats newly won control of the governor’s office while holding onto majorities in both chambers of their statehouses.Republicans went into the midterms with a grip on a majority of chambers in statehouses around the country. Single-party control of state legislatures has become common, and before voting on Tuesday, Republicans dominated both legislative chambers in 30 states, while Democrats held both chambers in 17.Counts were still continuing on Wednesday in various states, including Arizona and Nevada, where control of state legislatures was in play. But in states big and small where results were clear, Republicans easily maintained control of legislatures, including in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.“Republicans continue to absolutely dominate the 50-state landscape, as they have since 2010,” Ms. Underhill said.In a sign of how polarization has characterized thousands of races, including many in rural areas where Republicans were running uncontested, only a few hundred seats at the state legislative level were expected to shift across party lines out of the more than 6,200 up for election, according to the N.C.S.L., a bipartisan organization representing state legislatures.Nevertheless, the results indicate a turn from 2020 when Democrats spent heavily to diminish Republicans’ control of state legislatures only to fail at flipping a single chamber, even as Democrats won the presidency and control of Congress that year.The shifts in state legislative seats come as control of these legislatures may prove more significant than ever. State legislatures already hold sway over a wide range of issues from taxation to what teachers are allowed to discuss in public schools. After the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe this year, state lawmakers gained even more power, deciding in many cases whether to restrict or expand abortion rights for their residents.Their authority could now shift significantly as the Supreme Court, which has leaned to the right, hears a case next month related to the role of state legislatures and their role in setting election rules. More
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2022 Midterm Elections: What We Know So Far
Listen and follow ‘The Run-Up’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon MusicThe votes are still being tallied across the country — but we’re starting to get a picture of what these midterms were all about, and where American politics might be headed. Astead Herndon joins Michael Barbaro, host of “The Daily,” to sift through early midterm election results.Photo Illustration: The New York Times; Photo: Anna Watts for The New York TimesOn today’s episodeMichael Barbaro, host of “The Daily.”Additional resourcesFollow live updates on the midterms and results from top races.Lt. Gov. John Fetterman beat Mehmet Oz after a rocky campaign in Pennsylvania, surprising the G.O.P. and even Democrats.Election skeptics are winning races across the country. So far, nearly 200 Republicans who questioned or denied the results from 2020 have been elected.CreditsThis episode of “The Run-Up” is hosted by More
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Midterm Election Results
The majorities in the House and the Senate remain uncalled. Here’s what we know. Democrats defied expectations in the midterm elections, potentially defending enough seats to maintain control of the Senate but likely not enough to keep Republicans from taking the House. The battle for power in Congress stood too close to call this morning.The Democrats’ biggest win of the night came in the Pennsylvania Senate race, where John Fetterman defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz to flip the seat, which is held by the retiring Republican Pat Toomey. Three other races critical to the outcome of Senate control — Arizona, Georgia and Nevada — were too close to call. Democrats, who are running incumbents in all three seats, probably need to win two to keep the Senate; Republicans have to pick off two to take over.We may not know who won the Senate for some time: Georgia’s contest appears headed to a runoff election, to be held in December. (See the latest Senate results.)In the House, Republicans are favored to win control, but they appear to be on track to do so by less than many political observers expected. The Times forecasts that Republicans will end up with 224 seats, just above the 218 needed to secure a majority. That result would be the weakest performance by the president’s opposing party in a midterm election since 2002. “This is not the night the Republicans wanted,” Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, wrote. “The party is underperforming most everywhere.” (See the latest House results.)* Incumbent | Results as of 6 a.m. E.T. | Source: The Associated PressFor President Biden, a Republican-controlled House dooms his chances of passing the rest of his agenda in the next two years. Keeping the Senate would let Democrats continue approving Biden’s nominations for his administration and the courts.Here’s where we stand:Three high-profile Republican governors — Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas and Brian Kemp of Georgia — won re-election. In Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, the Democratic candidate for governor, easily beat Doug Mastriano, an election denier. Democratic incumbents won in Wisconsin and Michigan.Voters in Vermont, California and Michigan approved constitutional amendments protecting abortion and reproductive rights. An anti-abortion ballot initiative in Kentucky was too close to call. More than 210 Republicans who questioned the 2020 election won seats in Congress and in state races. Whether and how Republicans who lose will accept defeat is a major unknown.Many of Donald Trump’s most prominent endorsements came up short. He delivered brief remarks at a Mar-a-Lago party last night, and made no mention of DeSantis, a potential 2024 rival.America leaves these midterms much as it entered, The Times’s Lisa Lerer writes: a divided country that remains anchored in a narrow range of the political spectrum.It could take days to get all the results. Here’s a potential timeline.SenateMany of the biggest contests are too close to call. Here’s where the rest of the major races stand:Georgia: Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, leads Herschel Walker, the Trump-backed former football star, but the race appeared headed to a Dec. 6 runoff. Nevada: The race between Catherine Cortez Masto, a one-term Democratic incumbent, and Adam Laxalt, the state’s election-denying former attorney general, remained too close to call. Many ballots are left to count.Arizona: Mark Kelly, the Democratic incumbent, led Blake Masters, a Trump-endorsed venture capitalist, according to The Times’s election needle. The race was leaning toward Kelly.Wisconsin: Ron Johnson, the Republican incumbent, narrowly led Mandela Barnes, the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor.Republicans held on to seats in Ohio, where J.D. Vance, a critic-turned-defender of Trump, beat Tim Ryan, a Democratic member of Congress., and in North Carolina, where Ted Budd, a Republican member of Congress, defeated Cheri Beasley, the state’s Democratic former chief justice.Maggie Hassan, a two-term Democratic incumbent in New Hampshire, easily beat Don Bolduc, a Republican retired Army general who had questioned the 2020 election results.HouseHeaded into the election, Democrats held a narrow majority in the House: 220 to 212. Republicans needed to win 19 competitive seats to take control. So far, they have won five. Democrats would need to win 46 to keep control and have claimed 19.Republicans flipped seats in New Jersey and Virginia. In New York’s Hudson Valley, Mike Lawler was leading Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the Democrats’ House campaign arm.Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a political pariah, glided to victory in her predominantly Republican district.Democrats flipped Republican-held House seats in Ohio and Michigan and held on to vulnerable seats in Virginia, New Hampshire and elsewhere.Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat, won re-election in an Ohio district redrawn to favor Republicans. She is set to become the longest-serving woman in congressional history.Mary Peltola, a Democrat and the first Alaska Native elected to Congress, was ahead of Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in Alaska’s sole House election.Vermont elected Becca Balint, a progressive Democrat, to its lone House seat, becoming the last U.S. state to send a woman to Congress.Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old Democrat, will become the first Gen Z member of Congress after winning a Florida House seat.GovernorsGov. Ron DeSantis won re-election in Florida.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesHeaded into Election Day, Republicans controlled 28 governors’ mansions, while Democrats controlled 22. Democrats flipped the governorships of Maryland and Massachusetts. Some notable races:Florida: DeSantis won historically Democratic parts of the state, giving his party an unusually strong performance. The results may boost his prospects as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.Arizona: The race between Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor who falsely claims Trump won the 2020 election, and Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state, remained uncalled.New York: Kathy Hochul won a full term, beating Lee Zeldin, a Republican member of Congress, in one of the state’s closest races in decades.Maine: Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, won a second term, defeating Paul LePage, the Republican former governor.Michigan: The incumbent Democrat, Gretchen Whitmer, defeated the Trump-endorsed Tudor Dixon.Arkansas: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former press secretary, will be the state’s first female governor.Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott won a third term, beating Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat.Massachusetts: Maura Healey, a Democrat, became the nation’s first openly lesbian governor, flipping control of the governorship from Republicans.Maryland elected Wes Moore, a Democratic former nonprofit executive, as its first Black governor.Races in Nevada and Oregon remained uncalled.Ballot measuresMaryland and Missouri voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Similar efforts failed in Arkansas and North Dakota.Washington, D.C., overwhelmingly voted for a higher minimum wage for tipped workers.Ballot initiatives restricting forced prison labor passed in Alabama, Tennessee and Vermont and failed in Louisiana. Results in Oregon were too early to call.Commentary“Big winners tonight: Biden, who lost far fewer congressional seats than historical averages; reproductive rights, which proves a major issue among voters; democracy, with huge voter turnout and many high-profile election deniers losing big.” — Mark Updegrove, historian“There wasn’t a red wave. That is a searing indictment of the Republican Party. That is a searing indictment of the message that we have been sending to the voters.” — Marc Thiessen, Washington Post columnist and Fox News commentator“If you’re worried about the health of our democracy, it seems pretty good that we’ve had big turnout — implying that both sides think their votes actually matter.” — Farhad Manjoo, Times Opinion columnist“Voters weren’t necessarily looking to move the country left or right. They were anxious about the ways our country feels like it is unraveling. They went looking for a safe harbor in a storm.” — Kristen Soltis Anderson, Republican pollster“Dems have a Florida problem, but Republicans have a Trump problem. That seems harder to solve.” — Jen Psaki, former Biden press secretaryTHE LATEST NEWSEuropean leaders announced funding for poorer nations damaged by climate change.Climate change already has a growing impact on almost every aspect of U.S. society, a federal report found.Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said it was cutting more than 11,000 employees, about 13 percent of its work force.Brittney Griner, the W.N.B.A. star, is being transferred to a Russian penal colony.A $2 billion lottery ticket was sold in Los Angeles County.MORNING READSLeading artist: Revisiting Winston Churchill’s paintings.Stolen Rolex: A high-drama divorce in Italian soccer royalty.Full-body workout: You can do it in 20 minutes.Lives Lived: Evelyn de Rothschild, heir to a European banking dynasty, might have become a playboy. Instead, he joined the family business and helped reshape the British economy. He died at 91.PLAY, WATCH, EATDavid Malosh for The New York TimesWhat to CookMelted Cheddar and fermented kimchi make instant ramen even more satisfying.What to ReadYuval Noah Harari rewrote the story of human history for kids.Late NightStephen Colbert called Republican victories “a pink trickle.”Now Time to PlayThe pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was hourlong. Here is today’s puzzle.Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Okay! (Four letters).And here’s today’s Wordle. After, use our bot to get better.Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — GermanP.S. The DealBook team has grown: Ravi Mattu is now managing editor and Bernhard Warner is a senior editor.Here’s today’s front page.“The Daily” is about the midterms. On “Still Processing,” disco is back.Matthew Cullen, Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. More
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Your Election Day Guide
How to make sense of the results.Perhaps the only certainty about today’s midterm elections — which will determine control of American government at all levels and shape democracy’s future — is that the polls will close tonight.“Nobody actually knows what’s going to happen,” said my colleague Lisa Lerer, who covers politics.Voter surveys suggest Republicans are favored to take back the House and potentially the Senate, but so many races are tossups that several outcomes are still possible. (Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, outlined four possible scenarios.)Results will start trickling in around 6 p.m. Eastern, when the first polls close. But the full picture could take days or weeks to emerge. Some pivotal states, like Pennsylvania, can take days to count votes. And Georgia’s Senate race, which may decide control of the chamber, could go to a December runoff.Today’s newsletter is a guide to what’s at stake and what to look for as results come in, including potential signposts for control of Congress.The stakesThe midterm campaigns have focused largely on three issues: the rising cost of living, crime and abortion. “Everybody’s a little bit angry about something,” said my colleague Jennifer Medina, who’s in Nevada covering races there. “No matter which party you’re voting for, you’re angry about something.”A divided federal government is unlikely to do much about those issues. More directly in play is each party’s issue agenda. If Democrats keep the House and the Senate, they will get more shots at passing legislative priorities such as tax increases on the wealthy and tax credits for families with children.If Republicans take the House, they have suggested they may try to cut spending on Ukraine aid, health care and other federal programs, and would likely open investigations into Biden administration officials. If Republicans win the Senate as well, they will also have the final say over President Biden’s nominations to his administration and the courts.Many Republicans are also likely to take their cues from Donald Trump, who teased a potentially imminent presidential campaign announcement last night and could disrupt his party’s congressional agenda with his own priorities.Americans are also voting on 36 state governors and a host of state and local officials. These races could have a larger influence on some of the campaigns’ dominant issues; both abortion and criminal justice policy are largely set at the state and local levels. “Many Democrats running for governor have cast themselves as a bulwark when it comes to protecting abortion rights,” said my colleague Katie Glueck, who is covering Pennsylvania’s elections.Voters will also decide whether to approve a range of ballot measures, including abortion-related proposals in five states, marijuana legalization in five others and Medicaid expansion in South Dakota.The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.Final Landscape: As candidates make their closing arguments, Democrats are bracing for potential losses even in traditionally blue corners of the country as Republicans predict a red wave.The Battle for Congress: With so many races on edge, a range of outcomes is still possible. Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, breaks down four possible scenarios.Voting Worries: Even as voting goes smoothly, fear and suspicion hang over the process, exposing the toll former President Donald J. Trump’s falsehoods have taken on American democracy.The races could also help determine the future of American democracy. Numerous Republican nominees continue to question the results of the 2020 presidential election. Some are running for positions, like secretary of state, that directly oversee elections; others will have a say in certifying future voting results.What to watch forHow will we know where the night is headed? There are some helpful signs to look for:Tune in around 8 p.m. Eastern: Polling places in several key states will have closed by then, including in Georgia, Virginia, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. (Here’s when polls close and when to expect results.) Watch Virginia and New Hampshire closely; both tend to count votes relatively quickly and could act as bellwethers for the rest of the nation.Possible signs of a red wave: Democrats won House seats in Virginia’s three swing districts in 2018, during a blue wave. Today, these districts could signal where the rest of the country is going. If Republicans take back two or all three of these seats, their party will likely have a good night. If they take only one, the outcome could be close. And if Republicans lose all three, the polls might have overestimated them. (If you want to look up the results for these races tonight, they are the Second, Seventh and 10th House districts.)Potential blue defense: In New Hampshire, Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, is up for re-election. Polls favor her by about 3.5 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight. If she does better than that, Democrats could have a good night. If she does worse, Democrats could underperform the polls. And if Hassan loses, the party is probably in trouble: If they’re not winning elections in which they’re favored, Democrats are probably doing worse in races that are expected to be close.“If Democrats are losing there, it doesn’t speak well to Nevada, Arizona and Wisconsin,” said my colleague Reid Epstein, who is covering the midterms.The remaining key races: Four closely contested elections will likely be critical: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. If Democrats lose even two, they probably will give up their narrow hold over the Senate. But we might not know the full results for these elections for days or even weeks.For live updates and analysis tonight, check the Times website, which will have results pages for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (Here’s how The Times tabulates the vote counts.) And I’ll be back tomorrow with a rundown of the results we do have.More on today’s electionsCandidates have delivered their final pitches, stressing abortion, inflation and threats to democracy.Voter turnout is expected to be high. Here’s what you need to know today.Some Republicans, inspired by conspiracy theories, are preparing to challenge the results in Michigan.Officials are worried that lies will undermine voters’ confidence no matter who wins.An important question is whether candidates will accept results they dislike, the political scientist Lynn Vavreck writes in Times Opinion.Nancy Pelosi told CNN that the attack on her husband would affect her decision about whether to retire if Democrats lose control of the House.THE LATEST NEWSClimateWorld leaders are at the COP27 climate conference.Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“We are on a highway to climate hell,” the U.N. secretary general said at climate talks in Egypt.Today’s topics include holding companies accountable and what wealthier nations owe to the rest of the world.The top four emitters — China, the U.S., the European Union and India — aren’t meeting their climate goals.Switzerland is paying poorer countries to cut emissions and plans to take credit for the savings.Many of the most visited glaciers, including in Yosemite and Yellowstone, may disappear by 2050, the U.N. warned.Other Big StoriesApple will make some of its iPhones in India for the first time, seeking to decrease its dependency on China.Some people have left Twitter for the alternative social app Mastodon since Elon Musk took over.Taking Paxlovid within a few days of contracting Covid cuts the risk of long-term symptoms, a study found.The Supreme Court appeared ready to make it easier to challenge federal agencies.Europeans are frustrated by inflation but still supportive of Ukraine.OpinionsFentanyl and other synthetics have made drug experimentation more dangerous than ever for kids, Maia Szalavitz argues.Elon Musk wanted to go to Mars. Instead, he’s distracted by blue check marks, Eugene Robinson writes in The Washington Post.MORNING READSRobin Standefer, right, and Stephen Alesch of Roman and Williams.Landon Speers for The New York TimesDesign couple: They create unforgettable rooms.Text fights: Can “fexting” help a marriage?Please stop: The National Park Service asks you not to lick the psychedelic toads.Advice from Wirecutter: Hand-wash your cashmere sweaters.Lives Lived: The virologist and pediatrician Samuel Katz helped develop the measles vaccine, which has saved millions of lives around the world. He died at 95.SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETICMonday night football: Baltimore won its third straight game with a 27-13 victory in New Orleans, maintaining its one-game lead in the A.F.C. North. The Ravens’ defense won the night with four sacks.Trading rumors: Shohei Ohtani will remain in Los Angeles through the off-season, the Angels’ general manager Perry Mianasian said. Ohtani is set to be a free agent after the season.New leadership: Indianapolis fired head coach Frank Reich yesterday and named Jeff Saturday, a former Colts offensive lineman with no professional or college coaching experience, to serve as interim.Lucrative endorsements: Female college athletes are earning millions through social media. But some worry that their brand building is regressive, Kurt Streeter writes in The Times.ARTS AND IDEAS Sang An for The New York TimesPie seasonIt’s time to plan for Thanksgiving. Start with dessert: Genevieve Ko, a Times food writer, has nine new pie recipes.Genevieve and her team began testing for the collection in August. “I ended up baking 49 pies total to finalize the nine (plus the crust!),” she said. Her goal was to evoke the classic pies of a diner — apple, pecan, pumpkin — updated with modern ingredients and techniques.If you’re not sure where to start, try the caramel apple pie, which tastes like a carnival caramel apple atop a buttery cookie. “It doesn’t match any standard pie, but it eats like a pie and shows how holiday dishes can continue to evolve over time,” Genevieve said.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookJulia Gartland for The New York TimesAny kind of pasta works with tuna, capers and scallions.What to ReadIn “Flight,” Lynn Steger Strong examines the complexity of being home for the holidays.Where to GoSpend the night in an underwater hotel.Late NightThe hosts joked about Trump’s nickname for Gov. Ron DeSantis.Now Time to PlayThe pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was excavated. Here is today’s puzzle.Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Phase out (three letters).And here’s today’s Wordle. After, use our bot to get better.Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — GermanP.S. The Times’s Tracy Bennett will curate, program and test Wordle as its dedicated puzzle editor.Here’s today’s front page. “The Daily” is about Wisconsin’s elections.This edition of The Morning is also available in Spanish, as part of our El Times newsletter. Read and share the translation here.Matthew Cullen, Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. More
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Don’t Believe Lee Zeldin When He Says He Can’t Touch Abortion Access in New York
I called Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, on Monday morning to see how worried he was about New York’s governor’s race. Levine, a Democrat who’d just come from campaigning with Gov. Kathy Hochul, was pretty worried. Yes, polls have shown Hochul consistently ahead of the Trumpist Republican congressman Lee Zeldin, but Levine thought the race could go either way.“I don’t think we know how accurate polls are in New York State,” Levine told me, noting how long it’s been since New York has had a competitive statewide general election. “And there’s no doubt that Zeldin has used the crime issue to whip up energy on his side.”There are many reasons to be aghast at the idea of a gun-loving election denier taking power in a state that’s been as reliably liberal as New York. One of them is what Zeldin might do to New York’s status as a haven for abortion access.Though Zeldin is a co-sponsor in the House of the Life at Conception Act, which would bestow full personhood rights on embryos, he’s tried to neutralize abortion as a campaign issue by insisting that he couldn’t change New York’s abortion law even if he wanted to.There’s something bizarre about this argument: As Assemblywoman Deborah Glick pointed out to me, Zeldin is telling pro-choice New Yorkers that we can rely on the Legislature to protect us from him. And while it’s true that Zeldin wouldn’t be able to ban abortion anytime soon, there are many things, short of making abortions illegal, that a governor can do to make them harder to get.Zeldin’s strategy is similar to the one that Christine Drazan, the anti-abortion Republican with a decent chance of becoming governor of Oregon, is employing in her race. Both are trying to use Democrats’ success in passing state-level abortion protections against them, by arguing that these laws make their personal opposition to abortion moot.“I will not change and could not change New York’s abortion law,” Zeldin said in one ad, while Drazan told Oregon Public Broadcasting that “Roe is codified into Oregon law. Regardless of my personal opinions on abortion, as governor, I will follow the law.” But when it comes to reproductive rights, the letter of the law isn’t the only thing that matters.New York, for example, recently passed a statute that, among other things, prohibits law enforcement from cooperating with out-of-state prosecutors on most abortion cases. But whether a Governor Zeldin would be totally constrained by the law is unclear. He has promised to remove Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, from office, even though Bragg was elected last year with 84 percent of the vote, suggesting a willingness to push the limit of his authority. Oregon, meanwhile, has no such law, only a written commitment from the governor, the Democrat Kate Brown, to resist out-of-state legal actions over abortion.In both Oregon and New York, there are lots of administrative levers governors could pull to stymie reproductive health care. Zeldin has said it would be a “great idea” to appoint an anti-abortion health commissioner, a position with a lot of power in the state. Shortly after the draft of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe was leaked in May, Hochul created the $25 million Abortion Provider Support Fund to help New York providers care for an expected influx of out-of-state patients, and allocated $10 million more to help clinics beef up their security. Zeldin would almost certainly do away with grants like these. Drazan has criticized a similar grant program in Oregon, referring derisively to the funding of “abortion tourism.”New York’s governor “controls the purse strings, because he controls the division of the budget,” said Glick, who led the fight to pass the 2019 Reproductive Health Act, which codified Roe and expanded the number of health professionals who can legally perform abortions in the state. As governor, she said, Zeldin could withhold money from Planned Parenthood and restrict Medicaid funding for abortion. “You can slowly starve some programs by simply not providing resources in a timely fashion.”Of course, the people who care deeply about the nuances of reproductive health policy are probably already voting for Democrats, which is why pointing out all the ways right-wing governors could erode abortion access feels so dispiriting. Politically, the anti-abortion movement has often been at its strongest when it’s fighting for regulations that strangle providers with red tape or cut off public funding, because most people aren’t going to get far enough into the weeds to get outraged.While Roe still stood, the anti-abortion movement used a strategy of regulatory siege to chip away at abortion rights in red states. With anti-abortion governors, a similar strategy could be deployed in blue ones. Speaking to New York Right to Life in April, Zeldin promised an open-door policy. “Come on in to the second floor of the New York State Capitol,” he said. “It’s been a while, but you come right on in.”The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More
