Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado has long been a leading defender of abortion rights. But her record didn’t help much with voters earlier this month when she lost her primary to upstart democratic socialist Melat Kiros.
Similarly, Maine state auditor Matt Dunlap beat state Sen. Joe Baldacci in the Democratic primary in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District in June, despite attacks about Dunlap’s past anti-abortion record being a major part of the messaging against him.
These are the most recent examples of how abortion has receded as an issue in 2026 compared to the 2022 and 2024 elections, when it was one of Democrats’ top electoral focuses. In fact, more than three times as many abortion-related ads ran from January to mid-July 2024 — with candidates and organizations spending nearly double on them — as did in the same period of 2026, according to a NOTUS analysis of data from AdImpact, an advertising tracking company.