The Democrats have long feared the 2022 midterm elections, as they and the pundits they employ consistently warned of a big “red wave” coming for Congress.
The momentum was largely leaning in the favor of the Republicans of late, thanks to their anger over the debacle of the 2020 election, Joe Biden’s consistent failures as President, and a general sense that Donald Trump just will not be stopped.
But in New York State this week, a strange twist to the tale emerged.
Ulster County Executive Patrick Ryan, a Democrat, has won a special election to represent New York’s 19th Congressional District where the candidate made the race a referendum on the Supreme Court’s abortion rulings in a possible preview of November midterms.
Ryan will fill the seat formerly held by Antonio Delgado, the Democrat who resigned to become New York’s lieutenant governor this summer, and serve as representative for the district until 2023.
The matchup in the Empire State district, which covers New York’s Catskills and mid-Hudson Valley regions, may serve as a sign of what’s ahead for Republicans in this fall’s midterm elections as both candidates brought opposing priorities to the forefront of their campaigns.
Ryan turned his campaign in the direction of abortion rights in order to rally Democrats around him.
“Think about the message sent in Kansas, think about the message we can send right here,” he said, referencing a ballot decision from voters in the Midwestern state last month that prevented elected representatives from regulating abortion in Kansas.
“How can we be a free country if the government tries to control women’s bodies?” Ryan asked in his first ad. “That’s not the country I fought to defend.”
The left-leaning media has already begun to spin the victory as a turning point for Democrats, hoping to spur more abortion talk among candidates in close races.
But, we have to ask ourselves, is a one-issue election really what the nation needs right now?
