Kamala Harris kicks off 2024 with abortion rights tour on roe anniversary

Vice President Kamala Harris will kick off a contentious election year with a national tour focused on protecting abortion rights, underscoring the salience of the issue for Democrats.

The stretch of events begins in battleground state Wisconsin on Jan. 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which established abortion as a constitutional right before the Supreme Court overturned it last year. That ruling resulted in the procedure being banned in all or most cases for millions of Americans.

“Extremists across our country continue to wage a full-on attack against hard-won, hard-fought freedoms as they push their radical policies,” Harris said in a statement. “I will continue to fight for our fundamental freedoms while bringing together those throughout America who agree that every woman should have the right to make decisions about her own body – not the government.”

Democrats pulled off a better-than-expected performance in last year’s midterm election, in part by appealing to suburban women, independents and young people who were galvanized by the abortion ruling.

Harris has largely been the face of the White House on abortion rights, meeting in recent months with attorney generals, state legislators and health-care providers about navigating the legal challenges. She generally polls better than President Joe Biden with people of color and young voters, giving hope to their supporters that she could engage voters who may otherwise sit on the sidelines in 2024.

The administration continues to call on lawmakers to pass a measure enshrining a right to an abortion, but prospects in the near future for that are dim, given the partisan divide in Congress.

Biden is trailing former President Donald Trump — who holds an overwhelming lead in the Republican presidential primary — by 5 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup across the seven swing states, according to a recent Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.