WASHINGTON — Shortly after deciding to run for Congress on a platform that supports abortion rights, Democrat Michelle Vallejo had a conversation with her grandmother.
Given their generational differences, the complexities of the abortion politics and her grandmother’s deep religious faith, they didn’t find consensus on every aspect of the issue.
“That was probably one of the most challenging conversations I had,” said Vallejo, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, who is making her second run for Congress in a South Texas swing district against Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz.
But “where we agreed is that nobody other than (a) woman and her health care providers should be the ones making that decision,” she said. “It’s not right for politicians like (Texas Gov.) Greg Abbott or Monica De La Cruz or (Texas Sen.) Ted Cruz to be involved in these very private decisions.”
Vallejo is one of at least seven Latina Democrats running for Congress in 2024 who have made access to abortion a cornerstone of their campaigns.
They “know that it is a winning issue across the board and are running unapologetic campaigns centered on abortion rights,” said Danni Wang, a spokeswoman for EMILY’s List, which backs Democratic women who support abortion access.
BOLD PAC, the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, plans to “lean in very hard” on the issue this cycle, said Victoria McGroary, the group’s executive director.
“We know that we are on the right side of the argument,” she said. “We know that voters hate the Republican position and that it is key to our path to victory.”
While Republicans have made inroads with Latino voters in recent years, Democrats say the GOP’s support for strict limits on abortion threatens to undercut those gains. A majority of Hispanics, 57%, say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to a Pew Research Center survey released in 2022….
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