Women at a Harris rally in the battleground state of Arizona told the BBC that the stakes this year feel especially high. The state has a question on the ballot that would allow voters to decide whether the right to abortion should be enshrined in the state’s constitution. Abortion is currently illegal after 15 weeks, with few exceptions.
Mary Jelkovsky is hopeful abortion being on the ballot here in Arizona could help bring a blue tide.
Wearing a bright blue sweatshirt reading “vote with your vag,” the 26-year-old told the BBC she and her husband have started trying to get pregnant.
She says the idea that this could be forced on someone now with Roe v Wade being overturned was hard to wrap her brain around.
Ms Jelkovsky says the Supreme Court decision opened up important conversations with her friends and family. She says she learned multiple loved ones had had abortions, including once for a life-saving measure.
“It’s personal but it’s so important to have these conversations,” she says. “For us [women], this election couldn’t be more important.”
The Harris campaign is hoping the abortion issue will not just inspire Democrats to turn up at the polls, but convince Republican women to flip sides. These “silent” Harris voters, as political analysts like to call them, could help boost her numbers in especially tight races.
Arizonian Rebecca Gau, 53, was a lifelong Republican until Trump ran for president. When she cast her vote for Joe Biden in 2020, she said it was a protest vote. But this time around, she says she feels excited to vote for Harris.
“I felt like she could represent me as a practical American woman,” she told the BBC earlier in October.
She said she’s tired of “toxic masculinity”, and she thinks other Republican women, like her, feel the same way.
“I don’t care what the political persuasion is – women are fed up,” she said.
But not all Republican women are convinced. Tracey Sorrel, a Texan who is part of the BBC’s Voter Panel, said she thinks Harris would take abortion rights too far. Ultimately, even though she doesn’t like some of what he says, Ms Sorrel said she will vote for Trump.
“I’m not voting personality. I’m voting policy. I don’t have to marry the man,” she said.
With additional reporting from Robin Levinson King and Rachel Looker
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