“It really pisses me off,” Luster said of the two court decisions on the same issue. «These actions are racist at their core.»
David Axelrod, a former senior strategist for President Barack Obama, hopes the rulings will «motivate some, particularly young people.»
Pete Giangreco, a Democratic strategist who has worked on nine presidential campaigns, says the Democratic base is likely to be the most motivated.
“Just another record about the book burning, the abortion ban, the don’t tell gay fire that is consuming what’s left of the Republican Party,” he said. “Center-right moderates have nowhere to go but Joe Biden.”
Aaron Del Mar, a member of the Republican State Central Committee who is also an Asian-Pacific Islander, says ending affirmative action is not the same as ending Roe vs. Wade.
“Many suburban white women who in the past would have voted Republican were outraged by the Dobbs ruling, as they felt it violated their rights to choose and control their own bodies,» he said. «In affirmative action cases, it’s less personal, and even if they wouldn’t admit it, it gives their own children more opportunities.»
Becky Carroll, a Democratic political consultant, called the latest rulings “a call to action to the idea that elections matter because presidents and senators control who gets appointed to federal seats. We have the ruling today because of that.»
And Brian Stryker, a Democratic pollster for Impact Research, says: “Dobbs in 2024 it will be the Dobbs 2022. People are still 11 out of 10 angry for a good reason, so it’s going to be hard to impersonate.»
A version of this initially appeared in the June 30 issue of the Illinois Playbook. Sign up here for the newsletter.