Washington: The White House has rubbished various polls claiming that President Joe Biden is trailing behind his predecessor Donald Trump in five states, as it pointed to Democrat victories in three states — Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky — in the off-year elections, saying “Voting matters and not Polls”.
The White House pointed at the ‘limitations’ of polling surveys, especially attacking the New York Times/Ipso survey, and others such as NBC and CBC to say that ultimately voters decide their choice at the ballot box as evidenced by the trends in the off-year 2023 elections to legislatures, governors, and judges’ vacancies in the Supreme Court.
It cited the overwhelming Democrat victories in Ohio and Kentucky, where the Republican agenda against abortion rights were rejected outright, media reports said.
Politicos spent the early part of this week talking up a New York Times poll that found Biden losing to Trump in five key swing states and trailing a generic Democrat by 13 points.
That came to an abrupt end when election results started rolling in, something the Biden administration was happy to point out, the reports said.
‘ABORTION RIGHTS WIN OUT IN 2023 ELECTIONS, SHOWING GOP HASN’T FOUND FOOTING FOR 2024′ – screamed a Washington Examiner headline on the 2023 elections results.
“We have always said that voting matters and polls do not,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“Our focus is going to remain on our work to grow the economy, lower costs for families, and protect fundamental freedoms against dangerous agendas that are out of touch with the American people.”
Democrats won big in Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia, with Governor Andy Beshear winning re-election against a Trump-backed challenger, Ohio passing state-wide abortion protections, and Virginia holding off Governor Glenn Youngkin’s plans to turn the state legislature red.
The White House was quick to take a victory lap afterwards. Biden called several of the winning candidates, and both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris released statements about abortion, media reports said.
“President Biden’s values and agenda won big across the country last night,” Jean-Pierre said.
“In Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and in Virginia, voters once again sided with Biden’s agenda to stand up for fundamental freedoms, build an economy for the middle class, and protect democracy.”
The implication is that Biden himself will come out victorious during next November’s elections in spite of poor polling and historically bad approval ratings, the Washington Examiner reported, pointing to probable voting patterns in the presidential race of 2024, where abortion rights could be a major choice on voters’ agenda at the ballot box.
Democrats campaigned heavily on abortion in both 2022 and 2023 with a lot of success. They’re likely to talk up the topic again next year.
“Voters in those states also turned out to roundly reject abortion bans that jeopardise the health and the lives of women,” Jean-Pierre said.
“Abortion bans would have forced women to travel hundreds of miles for care and threatened to criminalise doctors and nurses. The stakes could not have been higher. And last night, voters sent a very, very clear message,” media reports said.
Meanwhile, former presidential candidate of the Democrats, Hillary Clinton, said that people “want regular order”.
Hillary Clinton shared how Democratic wins across the nation in Tuesday’s elections show people are “moving away from the drama” ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.
“People are kind of moving away from the drama, from, you know, all of the chaos. They want to just have regular order again,” Clinton was quoted by the Examiner as telling a news agency.
Clinton said the success of key Democratic victories provides insight into what voters are looking for in the 2024 presidential race.
(IANS)
