Democrats flipped an Alabama House seat on Tuesday in a special election after Democrat Marilyn Lands’s campaign centered on in vitro fertilization protections.
Lands flipped a longtime Republican district in Alabama after running her campaign on IVF protections in the state following a controversial state Supreme Court opinion that threatened the procedure. She beat Republican Teddy Powell by a wide margin of 25 percentage points. The district is politically centrist but has had a Republican representative for years. Trump won by only 1 percentage point in 2020.
“Today, Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation,” Lands said in a statement following her win. “Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception.”
Lands joins a small Democratic minority in the Alabama House that said it is committed to protecting access to IVF and appealing a statewide abortion ban.
Her victory adds to the wins for Democrats campaigning on protecting reproductive rights. Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, Democrats have found footing in battleground states by campaigning for abortion rights and protections. The Left has also found success in running against Republican opposition to abortion.
Powell’s campaign tried to avoid the subject of abortion or IVF. While he advocated local matters such as fixing roads and supporting schools, Powell accused Lands of trying to turn the special election into a national contest. The Biden campaign commented on Lands’s win, saying it was a warning for former President Donald Trump.
“Tonight, the voters in Alabama’s 10th House District elected a pro-choice champion in Marilyn Lands, sending Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans a clear message: They know exactly who’s to blame for restricting their ability to decide how and when to build their families and they’re ready to fight back,” Biden-Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
Conservative-leaning states have protected abortion rights in the wake of Dobbs. In Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio, voters protected abortion rights in their states. Kentucky voters blocked an amendment to their state’s constitution that would have denied any constitutional protections for an abortion.
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In Lands’s campaign, she made abortion a personal matter. In one TV ad, she shared her abortion story about terminating a nonviable pregnancy. She said women in Alabama today would have to cross state lines for a similar procedure.
“It’s shameful that today, women have fewer freedoms than I had two decades ago,” Lands said in the ad.
