Republicans ignored warnings about Ohio election

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : A Newsweek review of nearly a dozen advertisements by advocacy groups pushing for the passage of Issue One found anti-abortion rhetoric often prevailing over other concerns, including the potential for legislation degrading Ohioans' "parental rights," legalizing drug possession, and a proliferation of LGBTQ+ friendly policies based on so-called "cultural whims."Democrats, meanwhile, hammered Republicans on the abortion issue, running millions of dollars in advertisements accusing Republicans of hypocrisy and changing the rules to avoid a loss on the abortion issue in November.
49% : The playbook for Ohio Republicans to thwart a ballot initiative enshrining reproductive rights in the state constitution was supposed to be a simple one: Announce a special election in the heat of summer for a proposal to raise the threshold for success from a simple majority to 60 percent; Implore voters to turn out in efforts to "protect" the integrity of the state constitution; And under no circumstances, make the debate about abortion.
46% : Ohio's Secretary of State Frank LaRose -- a Republican who openly advocated for Issue One's passage -- publicly claimed the legislation was "100 percent" about abortion at a May 2023 fundraiser.
45% : That was the advice, at least, offered by strategy firms like powerful beltway consulting firms like OnMessage ahead of the campaign's crushing defeat on Tuesday night, who reportedly instructed Ohio Republicans to make it clear to voters that a vote for Issue One was not about banning abortion; it was to prevent so-called extreme outside interests from using the process to enshrine radical policies in the state constitution outside the oversight of the GOP's solid majorities in the state legislature.
44% : In neighboring Michigan last year, voters there voted to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitution while, in deep-red Kentucky, voters defeated a similar amendment to ban abortion in the state constitution by a five-point margin.
42% : For Democrats, the secret sauce was simple: put abortion on the ballot.
39% : And since the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the federal abortion protections afforded under the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, abortion has been a losing issue for Republicans nationwide.
38% : "Democrats really nailed that issue of abortion and tied Issue One very closely to it, whereas messaging from Republicans was all over the place.
37% : Abortion, by all indications, was a losing issue.
34% : And in several battleground states in the 2022 midterms, abortion arguably helped swing the result of contentious races in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in a year Democrats were expected to face ruin at the ballot box.

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