Both sides expect advantage from fight over vacant seat
Democrats and Republicans claim their base will be more energized than ever by the vacancy created with the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday.
The GOP has historically had more success in using the judiciary to rally its voters and push the courts to the right. But the Democrats’ angst over losing a progressive luminary and fear of a solidifying conservative majority may be enough to turn this court opening into a political advantage.
The flood of donations to Democratic candidates after Ginsburg’s death indicates a liberal hunger to stop the conservative tilt of the courts.
After Ginsburg’s death was reported Friday evening, ActBlue, a major online fundraising hub for Democrats, raised $30 million in 12 hours, shattering records.
“I’ve talked to dozens and dozens of women in the last 24 hours, many of whom are not at all interested in politics, who are ready to leave the sidelines and start phone banking, door knocking and doing whatever it takes,” said Rebecca Katz, a New York-based progressive strategist.
Rallying around the abortion issue has long been a playbook for the Republicans. The prospect of overturning Roe vs. Wade has held together the party’s socially conservative base, which turns out in force election after election.
When Justice Antonin Scalia died nearly nine months before the 2016 presidential election, the prospect of a Republican president filling that seat proved to be a potent motivator for evangelical voters to side with Trump, despite his multiple marriages and coarse personal style.
Those votes were crucial to Trump’s election. They made up more than a quarter of the electorate,and 80% of them voted for Trump, according to exit polls. Those voters have largely stuck with Trump to this day.
“I have not talked to one person who voted for the president the last time that wasn’t willing to vote for him again,” said Penny Nance, chief executive of Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group.