The latest from elections in Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and results

Andy Beshear and his wife, Britainy, are pictured during an interview with CNN’s Kate Bouldan on November 8.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, fresh off winning a tough reelection battle last night, reacted to the victory on CNN alongside his wife Britainy, telling CNN’s Kate Bouldan that his success was not because of “wedge issues,” but rather his individual message to Kentuckians.

“I know that there are different issues out there that may be driving people right now, but at the end of the day they want somebody they trust, that cares about them and that is going to work as hard as it can. And it doesn’t have to be more complicated than that,” the governor said, adding that his campaign’s strategy was to “not get distracted by whatever the issue of the day is in Washington, DC.”

“My opponent’s attempts to nationalize this race backfired, because he wasn’t talking about what he wanted to do as governor,” he continued, speaking about Republican candidate for governor Daniel Cameron. “So any time you want to bring in the wedge issues or try to make it about something else, you are missing your chance to talk to voters about what you would do.”

Britainy, who was involved in her husband’s campaign, said that while the political climate was “tough” and “extremely divisive,” Kentuckians showed with their votes that “the politics of divisiveness and hatred do not have a place in the governor’s office in Kentucky.”

Beshear said he is “absolutely not” considering a 2024 presidential bid.

“Well, it’s kind and it’s flattering, but my job is to be the best governor that I can be,” Beshear also said of 2028 rumors. “Every day now that I have left as governor is special.”

Hilary Clinton during an interview on ABC's "The View" on November 8.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that “the election results yesterday should be very good news for President Biden,” during an appearance on The View.

“Joe Biden has not only proved that he’s done a good job, but look at the alternative. Look at what we would face as a country. I think the election results yesterday should be very good news for President Biden,” Clinton said, noting that voters are clearly animated by abortion rights and increasingly repelled by political extremism.

Clinton said that it is “natural” for parties to toss around alternative candidates at this stage of the race, noting that the same happened during Barack Obama and Bill Clinton’s re-election campaigns. Still, she said, Biden remains the best person to take on former President Donald Trump.

“What I think, again, we saw yesterday, is that a lot of people may not be telling pollsters they’re reconsidering, but they’re reconsidering,” Clinton said of Trump’s success in the polls. 

Issue 1 supporters cheer at a watch party on November 7 in Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio on Tuesday night became the latest state to protect reproductive rights in its state constitution — joining California, Vermont and Michigan. It is the first and only state under full Republican legislative control to do so, signifying a growing disconnect between Ohio voters and the state’s Republican leadership, including Gov. Mike DeWine who signed a “heartbeat bill” banning abortion at around six weeks into law in 2019.

This comes months after a special election in August where 57% of Ohio voters rejected an initiative that would’ve raised the threshold to amend the state constitution from a simple majority to 60%. Although the measure was not directly about abortion, it served as a proxy battle for abortion rights in the state.

Ohio voters’ decision to protect the right to abortion in the state constitution overrides a six-week ban that was briefly in effect following the overturn of Roe v. Wade and has since been blocked by an injunction. Abortion is currently legal through 22 weeks in Ohio.

The same counties where more than 60% of voters opposed changing the constitutional amendment process also strongly voted in favor of protecting abortion in the state’s constitution.

In the general election, proponents of Issue 1 — which establishes a constitutional right to abortion — spent nearly $25 million in advertising, compared to opponents of the measure who spent $16.3 million, according to recent data from AdImpact.

Abortion proved to be a big motivator for Ohio voters during the off-year special election in August — which otherwise might’ve passed by under the radar. Voters turned out in droves to defeat the measure that would have altered the state’s amendment process. 

Top Senate Republicans called for changes to how the party handles divisive issues such as abortion rights ahead of the 2024 midterms after last night’s disappointing results.

He noted that he was troubled by the low voter turnout. 

“These were races that Democrats didn’t win – Republicans lost, we didn’t show up, same way we didn’t show up in Georgia in 2020,” Tillis said. 

He also pushed for state Republican parties to meet their voters where they are on abortion rights. 

“As speaker of the House, I passed several pro-life bills. When I ran for election in 2014, my position on pro-life never came up. Why? Because we made damn sure it was consistent with the majority of voters in North Carolina. That’s what we need to do across the country,” Tillis said.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune agreed that candidates are going to have to be on “offense” in 2024, saying: “We have to have a compelling message that appeals to suburban voters, no question about that.”

He added, “I think that’s economy, jobs, cost of living, public safety, the border, I think those are the issues that are going to resonate with people across the country. And our candidates this year are going to be on offense on that issue.”

Sen. John Cornyn noted that every candidate is going to have to find a message on abortion that works for their constituency in 2024. 

“This is something each individual candidate has to try to figure out for themselves. Every part of the country is a little bit different, so in places like New York or California, they’ll continue to be more permissive than in conservative states like mine that’ll be less so,” he said.

“I wouldn’t state a general rule that would apply nationwide,” he added. He also noted that they need, “good candidates who can answer the questions.”

However, Sen. Steve Daines, the chairman of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, argued that these elections were focused on state’s issues, not national ones, and are not a signal of what’s to come in 2024.

Daines added, “These are state issues they were battling. It’ll be a very different set of issues in ’24 as we look at the United States Senate.”

Sen. Mitt Romney is seen at the US Capitol on September 21, in Washington, DC.

Republican candidates in 2024 should focus on the economy and steer clear of social issues, after last night’s disappointing results, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said Wednesday.

“I think we perform best when we talk to people about the cost of living, and the fact that under President Biden, the cost of living has gone way up, their incomes have not gone up with it. When we’re talking about people’s lives, we win,” the Utah Republican told CNN’s Manu Raju. “When we’re talking about some social issues, they can become highly divisive and we end up not doing as well as we could have.”

Romney acknowledged there is “no doubt” that abortion will still be a key issue next year, noting that they “each can describe our personal views and what we want to do on issues of significance,” but he still emphasized the economy as the focal point of their messaging.

However, Romney doesn’t think that Republicans’ poor showing in this year’s elections are a signal of what’s to come in the 2024 presidential election.

“I don’t really think that the kinds of election results that we saw last night translate terribly well into President Biden’s reelection effort,” he said. “I think President Biden is overwhelmingly going to be judged on the basis of how people feel about their personal economy, about the cost of living, and I think abortion is going to be a big issue in states’ ballot initiatives and so forth, but at the national level, I think it’s going to be about the economy.”

Romney added, “I think Trump can absolutely win. I think the polls are showing that if the election were held today, Trump would win.”

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during his civil fraud trial on November 6, in New York City.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday tried to blame the defeat of the candidate he backed in the Kentucky governor’s race, Daniel Cameron, on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. 

“Daniel Cameron lost because he couldn’t alleviate the stench of Mitch McConnell. I told him early that’s a big burden to overcome. McConnell and Romney are Kryptonite for Republican Candidates,” Trump posted on Truth Social. 

Trump continued, “Tate Reeves, on the other hand, surged to a win for Governor in Mississippi after my involvement. Congratulations to Tate!”

Cameron, the state’s Republican attorney general, lost to incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

The biggest question in Tuesday’s elections was whether Democrats can maintain their advantages in the nation’s biggest population centers – despite all the headwinds buffeting the party.

Geographic polarization has been one of the most powerful trends in American politics for roughly the past two decades, with Democrats gaining ground in the most populous metropolitan areas almost everywhere, and Republicans growing stronger in the smaller places beyond them. That trend notably accelerated after Donald Trump emerged as the GOP’s dominant figure in 2016 and has ratcheted up since the Supreme Court rescinded the constitutional right to abortion last year.

The GOP’s dominance of exurban, small-town and rural areas helped Trump win the White House in 2016 and has allowed the party to solidify its grip up and down the ballot on interior states with large nonurban populations. But Republicans’ retreat from the well-educated inner suburbs around major cities has been the principal reason for their disappointing results in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections, as well as the anti-abortion movement’s defeat in a series of ballot initiatives since the 2022 Supreme Court decision.

By traditional measures, the political environment for Tuesday’s election again looked favorable for Republicans, with most voters expressing dissatisfaction about both the economy and President Joe Biden’s job performance. But all of those conditions were present in the 2022 midterms, when Republicans underperformed anyway, mostly because of continued resistance in the major population centers – especially those well-educated inner suburbs where most voters oppose new restrictions on abortion.

The largest urban and suburban areas likely determined whether Democrats could defy political gravity once again this year in Tuesday’s key elections, from Kentucky and Ohio to Virginia and Pennsylvania. If Democrats run well, it will reinforce the message from the 2022 midterms that they can hold a critical swathe of voters who feel the party has not delivered for their interests by portraying Republicans as a threat to their rights and values.

Read Brownstein’s full analysis.

People cheer as they watch election results come in on November 7, in Columbus, Ohio. 

States and cities across America held elections on Tuesday in the last major election day until the presidential primaries begin in January.

For all the sound and fury around yesterday’s elections, there was one clear signal: Abortion rights are politically popular, no matter where or when they are on the ballot.

And that — no matter how you slice it — is good news for Democrats as the parties plot their strategies ahead of the 2024 elections.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin – the Virginia Republican who believed he could crack one of the most intractable issues in American politics with the promise of “reasonable” abortion restrictions – will not lead a GOP-controlled legislature in the Commonwealth, which denied the party control of the state Senate and put a swift end to both his plan for a 15-week abortion ban and rumors he might pursue a 2024 presidential bid.

Meanwhile, voters in Ohio decisively said they wanted a constitutionally protected right to abortion with the passage of a ballot measure – only a few months after they rejected another measure that would have made it harder for them to shield abortion rights.

And in Kentucky, the Democratic governor defeated his Republican challenger, a state attorney general with close ties to former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, after a campaign in which abortion became a flashpoint.

Here are the key election night takeaways on a strong night for Democrats:

As Ohio goes, so goes the nation? Tuesday night’s election results probably won’t change the equation for Biden in 2024, given Ohio’s recent presidential electoral history. But how about Sen. Sherrod Brown? The Ohio Democrat faces a difficult reelection run next year, but outcomes from the Buckeye State may give him a boost.

Already a proven political winner for Democrats, abortion rights further solidified their place as a driving force in next year’s elections when voters in Ohio, an increasingly conservative state that voted twice for Trump, passed a ballot measure on Tuesday enshrining them in the state constitution. Red, blue and purple states alike have green-lit similar proposals, solidifying a trend that defies partisan expectations and could have an outsized influence on next year’s federal elections. In the end, though, Ohio Republicans might have gotten off easy. Their referendum took place now, during an off-year with no voting for statewide office or president. Other state Republican parties might not be so lucky.

Glenn Younkin and Virginia hit a wall: The Youngkin 2024 bandwagon ran off the road on Tuesday, when Virginia voters denied the governor and his party the legislative majorities they craved. That means no 15-week abortion ban, which Youngkin backed as a “reasonable” solution that, in his telling, was going to douse the rage of Americans who disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year. It also likely puts to bed rumors that Youngkin, who has always insisted he had no ambitions to move north of Virginia, will attempt a late entry into the 2024 GOP presidential primary. The logic there turned on the governor’s ability to craft a coalition that included the far-right, the center-right and the pure centrist swing voter – or something akin to what won him the governor’s mansion in 2021.

Democrat Andy Beshear won reelection in Kentucky. But who lost? Andy Beshear won a second term on Tuesday in a state that Trump carried by more than 25 points in 2020. Now the real fight begins. Endorsed by Trump but often described as McConnell’s protégé, Daniel Cameron’s defeat will stir a lot of finger-pointing within the Republican Party. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was directing his at the former president shortly after the polls closed, calling the result “another loss for Trump.”

History-making wins in Rhode Island and Philadelphia Government will look a little more like the governed after Tuesday night’s results are all in. To start, Democrat Gabe Amo is the projected winner of Rhode Island’s special congressional election. He will be the first Black person to represent the state in Congress. And in Philadelphia, former city councilmember Cherelle Parker will become the first woman to lead the City of Brotherly Love.

Read more election takeaways.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin during a campaign stop at a polling location in Bristow, Virginia, on Tuesday.

Democrats will win full control of the Virginia legislature, CNN projects, effectively ending Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s hopes of governing with Republican majorities and enacting his conservative agenda. 

Virginia Democrats will flip the state House while retaining their majority in the state Senate.  

Control of the state legislature was at stake in this year’s election, with Republicans defending their narrow majority in the state House. Youngkin, who has been touted as a potential late entrant into the 2024 Republican presidential race currently dominated by Donald Trump, spent much of the past few months rallying GOP voters toward a hoped-for governing trifecta.  

The elections were also seen, for better or for worse, as a referendum on Youngkin’s non-MAGA brand of conservative politics and the state House of delegates and state Senate candidates who subscribe to it. 

Democratic candidate for Virginia House of Delegates Rodney Willett and Democratic candidate for Virginia State Senate Schuyler VanValkenburg greet supporters at an election party on Tuesday in Richmond, Virginia.

But with Democrats projected to control the state legislature, Youngkin may have lost the opportunity to portray himself as the rare GOP leader with some distance from the MAGA brand and a record of winning over some Democrats. 

The results also underscore the power of abortion politics after yet another campaign waged with reproductive rights as a central issue broke in Democrats’ favor. Youngkin had vowed that if Republicans won full control of the Virginia legislature, they would pass and he would sign legislation to outlaw abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.  

Going into the election, Virginia Democrats held a 22-17 majority in the state Senate, with one vacancy. Republicans controlled the state House 48-46 with six vacancies. 

The post has been updated with the results from the House of Delegates races.

CNN’s Ethan Cohen, Molly Gahagen and Melissa Holzberg DePalo contributed reporting to this post.

Mississippi GOP Gov. Tate Reeves greets supporters at his gubernatorial reelection watch party in Flowood, Mississippi on November 7.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves will win a second term as governor of Mississippi, CNN projects, winning a majority of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Reeves will defeat Democrat Brandon Presley, a member of the state Public Service Commission and a second cousin of Elvis Presley, who conceded the race in the deep-red state Tuesday night.

The Republican governor is a longtime fixture in Mississippi politics, serving in statewide office for nearly two decades. He was first elected state treasurer as a 29-year-old in 2003. After two terms as treasurer and another two as state lieutenant governor, he was elected to the state’s top executive office in 2019.

In television ads, Reeves linked Presley to President Joe Biden on issues such as gender-affirming care and immigration and attacked his opponent for receiving campaign contributions from out-of-state donors. A closing ad from the Reeves campaign featured former President Donald Trump touting his endorsement of the governor.

Reeves campaigned on Mississippi’s education improvement, as the so-called “Mississippi miracle” has seen the state rise more than any other on fourth grade reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress from 2011-2022, according to the state department of education.

Presley sought to make an economic appeal to working-class voters by pledging to cut taxes and expand Medicaid. While Reeves opposes expanding Medicaid, he proposed a nearly $700 million plan to support the state’s struggling hospitals.

Presley also tried to link Reeves to the state’s wide-ranging welfare fraud scandal, which took place when the Republican was lieutenant governor. While Reeves’ name is frequently mentioned in legal proceedings, he has never been officially accused of any wrongdoing and has denied any involvement.

This year’s governor’s race in Mississippi was determined by only the popular vote. Under the old system, candidates needed to win a majority of the popular vote and a majority of state House districts. And if no candidate managed to meet both requirements, the Mississippi House, which Republicans have controlled for more than a decade, would determine the winner.

In 2020, Mississippi voters amended their state constitution to change the way statewide officials, including governors, are elected. Under the new system, a runoff would take place if no one candidate receives a majority of the popular vote.

Voting rights groups had long argued that the old system diluted the Black vote in a state with the highest percentage of Black residents in the nation.

CNN’s Dianne Gallagher contributed reporting to this post.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio speaks at an event in Austin, Texas, on March 9, 2023, about the day her daughter was killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the mother of an Uvalde school shooting victim, will lose her bid to become the Texas city’s next mayor, CNN projects. 

Former Uvalde Mayor Cody Smith will win the special election to succeed incumbent Don McLaughlin, who is stepping down after nearly 10 years leading the city — about 80 miles west of San Antonio — to pursue a Texas state House seat.

Smith will finish out the rest of McLaughlin’s term, and the office will be up for grabs for a full term next year. 

Mata-Rubio ran on a platform focused on “boosting our economy, protecting our history and culture, and improving city services so they work for you,” according to a September campaign video posted on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.  

Her daughter, Lexi, was among 19 fourth graders and two teachers who were fatally shot inside Robb Elementary School in May 2022. 

When announcing her campaign in July on X, Mata-Rubio addressed her daughter, vowing she would “honor your life with action.” 

Since the mass shooting, officials have given shifting and contradicting narratives about the police response to the incident. Mata-Rubio has demanded answers from officials and has been a vocal proponent of tougher gun laws, including calling for a ban on assault rifles. 

During a congressional hearing on gun violence last year, Mata-Rubio remembered her daughter as “intelligent, compassionate and athletic.”  

“We don’t want you to think of Lexi as just a number,” she said.  

Daniel McCaffery arrives at his polling place to vote in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 7.

Democrat Dan McCaffery will win a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, CNN projects, expanding his party’s majority on a court likely to issue consequential rulings on abortion and election procedures. 

McCaffery – who currently sits on a statewide appellate court known as the Superior Court – will defeat Republican Carolyn Carluccio in what became an expensive and hotly contested race this year. 

He will fill an open seat, vacant since the death last year of Chief Justice Max Baer, a Democrat. 

The outcome does not change the partisan balance on the seven-seat court, where Democrats currently hold a 4-2 majority. But justices have deadlocked 3-3 on several key cases – including on whether to count mail-in ballots that were missing a date on their return envelope in last year’s midterm elections. 

And his victory in Tuesday’s election could help his party retain its majority on the court in future election cycles. Retention elections for three of the four current Democrats on the high court are slated for 2025. 

(Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that directly elect state Supreme Court judges in partisan contests. Justices serve a 10-year term before voters decide whether to retain them.) 

The future of abortion dominated the race. 

Carluccio, a Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas judge and a former prosecutor, faced opposition from Planned Parenthood Votes, an abortion rights group. The group’s advertising highlighted reporting that a line on Carluccio’s campaign website about her being a “defender … of all life under the law” had been removed after she won the GOP primary earlier this year. 

Carluccio downplayed the abortion issue during the campaign and, in an op-ed about her candidacy, wrote that she puts loyalty to the law above any ideology.  

For his part, McCaffery, a former Philadelphia prosecutor, emphasized protecting abortion access – a strategy Democrats have used in elections across the country since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. And he touted his endorsements from abortion rights organizations, along with those from Democratic groups and labor unions. 

Abortion is currently legal in the Keystone State up to 24 weeks, but the state’s justices are weighing a case about the use of public funds to help women obtain the procedure. 

From left, Sheila Jackson Lee and John Whitmire.

The race to be the next mayor of Houston will advance to a runoff between Democrats John Whitmire and Sheila Jackson Lee, CNN projects, with no candidate taking a majority of the vote in Tuesday’s first round.  

Whitmire, a longtime state legislator, and Jackson Lee, a longtime congresswoman, were the top two vote-getters in the crowded nonpartisan contest to lead the country’s fourth-largest city. They will next face off in a December 9 runoff. 

Incumbent Mayor Sylvester Turner, a former Democratic state lawmaker, is term-limited. 

Jackson Lee, 73, who represents Texas’s 18th Congressional district, was first elected to the US House in 1994 after earlier stints on the Houston City Council and as a Houston municipal judge. If she wins the runoff, she would become the first Black woman elected mayor of Houston and the city’s third female mayor. She has been endorsed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.  

Whitmire, 74, has served in the Texas legislature for more than 50 years. He was first elected to the state House in 1972 and won election 10 years later to the state Senate, where he is currently the chamber’s longest-serving member. He had endorsements from Houston-area US Rep. Sylvia Garcia, former Houston Mayor Lee Brown, who was the first Black man to lead the city, and several local police organizations. 

Whitmire also earned the endorsement of the Houston Chronicle editorial board, which touted his experience and pragmatism in the state legislature, writing, “What he lacks in youthful pep or pigment he makes up in connections and know-how.” 

CNN’s Ethan Cohen, Molly Gahagen and Melissa Holzberg DePalo contributed to this post.

Mississippi Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley speaks to reporters during a campaign stop on November 6, in Jackson, Mississippi. 

Democratic challenger Brandon Presley said he called Gov. Tate Reeves to concede the governor’s race in Mississippi.

Presley, who is a second cousin of Elvis Presley, serves on the Mississippi Public Service Commission.

CNN has not yet made a projection in the governor’s race.

Reeves announced in front of a large, enthusiastic crowd that he had accepted the concession of his opponent. Reeves noted that his victory was not too bad for “one of the most unpopular governor in America” as the media dubbed him, he said.

“Mississippi has momentum, and this is Mississippi’s time,” Reeves said.

Reeves said that Presley campaigned hard and visited many counties in this state and congratulated him for “running hard all the way through.”

Reeves thanked former President Donald Trump, noting he had spoken to him just minutes before on the phone. He said that Trump told him to tell the people of Mississippi that he loved them and he would ensure Trump carried the state again in 2024.

 Chris Christie speaks during the Florida Freedom Summit in Kissimmee, Florida on November 4.

Chris Christie, Republican presidential candidate, said Tuesday that any Republican who is “overconfident” about beating President Joe Biden in 2024 is “a foolish Republican,” as Democrats celebrate victories and close races in some key statewide elections. 

Christie told CNN’s Abby Phillip that Biden’s incumbency is “a very strong tool,” and noted the Democratic president “will always be a difficult opponent.”

A new CNN poll finds former President Donald Trump narrowly leads Biden, 49% to 45% among registered voters, in a hypothetical rematch.

The one-time Donald Trump ally called the former president “electoral poison,” pointing to losses by Republicans in the past three elections and saying “tonight, you’re seeing us lose again.”

He said Kentucky Republican Daniel Cameron made a “huge mistake” by embracing Trump in the Kentucky gubernatorial race, and “the voters of Kentucky, very red state, as you noted, gave their verdict on politicians who sell their soul to Donald Trump.”

Christie also reaffirmed his position that abortion restrictions should be decided at the state level, unless the country reaches a national consensus.

“If at some point there was a clear consensus amongst all 50 states about some number of weeks [for a ban], that would be something I’d be willing to consider, but it would have to be a consensus that was formed by the 50 states,” he told Phillip.

Christie, who personally opposes abortion, said he’d consider signing a bill backed by the requisite 60 votes in the Senate, but noted he didn’t “see that happening any time soon.”

Ohio became the latest state on Tuesday to vote in favor of protecting abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade last year.

In the Virginia legislature election, Democrats currently have an advantage in both the House Delegate and Senate races, leading in 52 House seats and 21 Senate seats, according to the Virginia Department of Elections.

In order to gain control in the House of Delegates, a party needs to win 51 seats. It needs 21 seats for a majority in the Senate.

Republicans are leading in 48 seats in the House Delegate races and 19 in the state Senate races.

Democrats have had control of the state Senate while Republicans have had control of the House of Delegates.

It’s still too early to call control of the chambers.

The Virginia Capitol in Richmond, Virginia.

While there are no statewide races on the ballot in Virginia, every legislator in the commonwealth is up for reelection.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. ET in the state and results continue to come in.

If Republicans can maintain control of the House of Delegates and overcome the narrow Democratic majority in the Virginia Senate, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s party would have full control of state government for the first time in a decade. 

Abortion has been a major issue in the campaigns, as Democrats pitch themselves as the last defense against the 15-week abortion ban Youngkin has promoted.

Education has also come to the forefront in the final weeks of the campaign, as advertisers from both parties have produced more unique ads referencing education than either abortion or crime, according to AdImpact data. The fight over Virginia schools was a major issue in the state’s 2021 election when Youngkin flipped the governor’s mansion and the House of Delegates. 

These were the first elections Virginia conducted under the state’s post-2020 census legislative maps.

During the 2020 election, Virginia voters approved a redistricting reform which created a commission made up of both citizens and politicians. However, the commission stalemated and the state Supreme Court drew maps instead. Those maps didn’t take incumbency into consideration, so many sitting members of the legislature ended up in unfamiliar districts or paired with their colleagues.

The competitive races in Virginia are largely taking place in three main regions of the state: The outer Washington, DC, suburbs like Fredericksburg, Prince William, Loudon and Stafford Counties, the suburbs of Richmond in Henrico County and the Hampton Roads region in the southeastern part of the state. 

Ohio will become the latest state to enshrine reproductive rights in its state constitution, CNN projects, continuing a winning trend for abortion rights advocates since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

The vote is yet another sign that abortion access is a key issue for voters across party lines — even in a state like Ohio, which has trended Republican in recent elections.

See how people in the state reacted to the news:

Abortion rights supporters celebrate winning the ballot measure Issue 1, a measure to enshrine a right to abortion in Ohio's constitution, in Columbus, Ohio, on November 7.

People arrive at the Center for Christian Virtue in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday for a watch party for opponents of ballot measure Issue 1.

Issue 1 supporters cheer as they watch election results come in on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio.

A woman bows her head during a prayer at a watch party for opponents of Issue 1 at the Center for Christian Virtue.

The stage is set at a watch party for opponents of Issue 1 at the Center for Christian Virtue.

Supporters of Issue 1 cheer as results come in at a watch party hosted by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio.

Vivek Ramaswamy fills out his ballot on Election Day in Columbus, Ohio, on November 7.

Vivek Ramaswamy, an Ohio-based Republican presidential candidate, said pro-life advocates need to discuss abortion “very differently” to make political progress in the future after Ohioans voted to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution.

Ramaswamy, who voted against the ballot measure in Columbus on Tuesday, said the pro-life movement “needs to be better about the way we discuss this issue” in the wake of another strong showing of support for abortion rights from voters in a traditionally conservative-leaning state, following similar results in Kansas and Kentucky in recent elections.

Ramaswamy said the moment calls for “deep reflections” among Republicans and anti-abortion activists.

Ramaswamy suggested Republicans enact policies and messaging strategies around increasing access to contraception, making adoption a more feasible alternative to abortion, expanding access to childcare and codifying into law “greater sexual responsibility for men,” which he said could include increasing financial responsibilities for fathers confirmed via paternity test.

“That, combined with different messaging, yes I do believe will win many Americans over,” he said.

If he won the presidency, Ramaswamy said he would not sign a federal abortion restriction into law. He argued that, as “a 10th Amendment absolutist,” abortion access should be determined by states. But he also expressed hope for the future of the pro-life movement, despite the “lost battle” today in Ohio.

Newly elected Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson speaks with Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry in the House chamber after his election at the US Capitol on October 25, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Senior House Republicans are downplaying the abortion rights referendum approved by Ohio voters, arguing that the 2024 election will turn on other issues instead.

Asked by CNN if he’s concerned his party is on the wrong side of public opinion on the issue, House Speaker Mike Johnson — who has made his anti-abortion views central to his political identity — said: “I’m not going to comment on that.”

Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who chairs House Judiciary Committee, told CNN that issues like crime and immigration would drive the election in 2024 — not abortion.

“Those issues are going to drive the election,” he said.

Another member of the House GOP leadership team predicted that the abortion issue would “not determine any race” for a House seat next year.