Kansas Voters Sent A Clear Message: No Abortion Ban In The Sunflower State

A few days go, we looked at the 15 Kansas counties most likely to vote for the anti-Choice ballot measure. They’re all under-vaccinated, Trump-worshipping seats of ignorance and bigotry— and none of them disappointed. All 15 voted heavily for the anti-Choice ballot initiative on Tuesday, even if not quite as strongly as they voted for Trump, while the counties that voted for Biden in 2020 voted even more strongly against the proposition:

• Wallace Co.- 93.3% Trump, 38% fully vaccinated (83.0% anti-Choice)

• Sheridan Co.- 88.7% Trump, 36% fully vaccinated (78.2% anti-Choice)

• Ness Co.- 88.5% Trump, 53% fully vaccinated (72.0% anti-Choice)

• Gove Co.- 87.8% Trump, 49% fully vaccinated (79.0% anti-Choice)

• Phillips Co.- 86.9% Trump, 44% fully vaccinated (68.6% anti-Choice)

• Stevens Co.- 86.7% Trump, 40% fully vaccinated (73.4% anti-Choice)

• Morton Co.- 86.3% Trump, 43% fully vaccinated (68.3% anti-Choice)

• Rooks Co.- 86.1% Trump, 49% fully vaccinated (65.7% anti-Choice)

• Barber Co.- 86.0% Trump, 48% fully vaccinated (68.5% anti-Choice)

• Greeley Co.- 85.7% Trump, 52% fully vaccinated (60.7% anti-Choice)

• Logan Co.- 85.7% Trump, 48% fully vaccinated (69.6% anti-Choice)

• Scott Co.- 85.6% Trump, 49% fully vaccinated (66.5% anti-Choice)

• Chautauqua Co.- 85.3% Trump, 42% fully vaccinated (56.5% anti-Choice)

• Jewell Co.- 85.2% Trump, 47% fully vaccinated (66.9% anti-Choice)

• Lane Co.- 85.1% Trump, 43% fully vaccinated (60.0% anti-Choice)

Statewide, though, the ballot measure was soundly rejected by Kansans in a very high-turnout (around 50%) election. And it wasn’t just the 534,134 (58.8%) to 374,611 (41.2%) win for the pro-choice position that was so impressive. In the two gubernatorial primaries combined, there were 727,360 votes. But when it came to the ballot question, far more people voted— 908,745. Let’s keep in mind that though extreme fascist Kris Kobach won the GOP primary for Attorney General (42.3%), he got a total of 195,701 votes— quite a few less than the 534,134 votes to keep Choice constitutionally protected in Kansas.

The NY Times reported that “Going into Election Day, many observers believed the outcome of the referendum would be determined in increasingly Democratic areas like the Kansas City suburbs— that is, by whether enough voters turned out there to compensate for the very conservative lean of the rest of the state. But abortion opponents did surprisingly poorly even in the reddest places… We can talk about the cities all day long, but Kansas is known as a rural Republican state for a reason: Rural Republican areas cover enough of the state that they can, and almost always do, outvote the cities. The rejection of the amendment has as much to do with lukewarm support in the reddest counties as it does with strong opposition in the bluest ones… From the bluest counties to the reddest ones, abortion rights performed better than Biden, and opposition to abortion performed worse than Trump.”