The latest messaging battle on abortion
Long Island has been friendly territory for Republicans in recent years, but Democrats are trying to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity by highlighting a familiar issue: abortion rights. It's an issue they've been hammering home in races across the country, and one where local sentiment and national Republican politics are wildly out of step.
Abortion has been legal in New York since 1970, three years before Roe v. Wade was decided, and this November, a referendum that would ban discrimination based on sex and gender and enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution will appear on the ballot. New York is one of the states most supportive of abortion rights in the country, with 71 percent of residents saying it should be legal in all or most cases in a Public Religion Research Institute survey from last year.
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But while abortion access isn't in danger at the state level, Suozzi is arguing that electing a Democrat in today's race is critical to protect it from Republican efforts to enact a federal abortion ban. Though Pilip says she would vote against a national abortion ban despite being "pro-life," the Democratic National Campaign Committee is running ads warning that Pilip "is part of the extreme wing of the Republican Party that wants to take away your rights and benefits."
Suozzi's message seems to be working. In a Newsday/Siena College Poll from Feb. 3-6, 67 percent of likely voters in the district said they think Pilip would vote with Republican leadership to enact a national abortion ban, and 55 percent thought Suozzi would do a better job addressing abortion. That said, only 4 percent of voters in the district named abortion access as the "most important issue facing New York" in an Emerson College Polling/PIX11 survey last month, with issues like immigration and the economy more top-of-mind.
—Monica Potts, 538