This week President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won enough delegates to officially become their parties' presumptive presidential nominees, setting the stage for a 2020 rematch. As the election season ramps up, Vice President Kamala Harris made history by campaigning at an abortion clinic in Minnesota Thursday to show Democrats' commitment to pushing the issue during this election.
With the battle for the swing states officially on, Trump and Biden are campaigning in competitive states trying to shore up support from independents, as well as hesitant members of their own parties. "Regulate guns, not women!" declared Biden at a recent campaign rally.
Trump is juggling a full campaign schedule with frequent court appearances like Thursday's hearing in Florida over his handling of classified documents. Trump is accused of intentionally taking highly classified documents and storing them at his personal properties, but Trump's lawyers argue the former president had the authority to take the documents.
Nathan Gonzales from Inside Elections tells CBN News even with the same candidates, it's a very different race than 2020. "Both Biden and Trump come to this race with significantly more liabilities than what they had almost four years ago," said Gonzales. "There's a lot of volatility in this race that we still have to wait and see what happens."
Gonzales says it will be crucial for both candidates to win over defectors in their own parties in order to win the general election.
"Trump can't afford to lose hardly any Republicans in a close race," explained Gonzales. "And even though there were voters who voted for Nikki Haley, and have said that they are skeptical about voting for Trump, I expect the vast majority of Republicans to support Trump when we get to November. It may not be because they like him, but it's because they don't want Biden to have a second term."
Democrats Focus on Abortion Agenda
In a first for a sitting president or vice president, Vice President Kamala Harris toured a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Minnesota this week.
"What we want is to put back in place the protections the Supreme Court took away, which is to codify, put into law, the protections of Roe v Wade, that's what we want," Harris told reporters at the clinic.
PHOTO: Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood, Thursday, March. 14, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Gonzales says the historic visit shows Democrats believe the abortion issue will help them win in 2024. "The vice president's visit is a great example of what Democrats want to talk about in this campaign," said Gonzales. "Democrats are going to talk about abortion access as a key plank in this election. It motivates Democratic voters and it could help with independent voters."
It's part of what the Biden administration has dubbed its "Reproductive Freedom Tour" as it makes abortion access a key plank in its campaign. Some say the strategy could backfire.
Sue Liebel of SBA Pro-Life America said, "Polling shows that even pro-choice Democrats do not approve of the extreme agenda that the Biden-Harris administration has, which is abortion up until way later in pregnancy, up until the moment of birth, really, also that our tax dollars would pay for that."
With so many challenges facing the country, voters may resent the fact that the Biden administration is campaigning at an abortion center... "not to our heavily compromised southern border, not to a grocery store where people can barely afford food...But to a place where children are killed on purpose...That's what they care about," Students for Life told CBN News.
Prof. Erin Hawley from Regent University Law School, said, "I honestly think it's just heartbreaking to see the Vice President of the United States celebrating a clinic whose purpose is to take unborn lives rather than doing something concrete to help women who are facing these situations."
"So instead of working to facilitate programs that help the unborn, that help mothers like pregnancy care centers do throughout this country, instead they're celebrating organizations that profit off of a baby's demise," she said.
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More than 20 states have passed laws banning or limiting access to abortion since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v Wade. In six states, voters have approved ballot referendums protecting abortion. More are expected in November.
But Harris' abortion clinic visit is now energizing pro-life voters. "No other presidential administration has been as focused on promoting abortion as this one," the National Right to Life Committee said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the 2024 election could be decided by an emerging voting bloc known as the "double haters," which refers to people who don't like either candidate. Polls show this group makes up nearly 20 percent of voters nationwide, and who they ultimately break for could be our next president.
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