Governors offer Democratic voters aggressive action
NEW YORK — Hours after a gunman killed seven people at a July Fourth parade in suburban Chicago, Gov. J.B. Pritzker tapped into the frustration of many fellow Democrats at the seeming inability of the U.S. to curb gun violence.
“If you’re angry today, I’m here to tell you: Be angry. I’m furious,” Pritzker said.
But at the White House, President Joe Biden was more focused on reassurance than anger.
“I know it can be exhausting and unsettling,” he said, adding that “we’re going to get through all of this.”
In a summer marked by anger among Democrats over a string of mass shootings and the Supreme Court’s decision to strip women of the constitutional right to an abortion, several governors, including Pritzker, are emerging as the party’s leading voices of outrage.
Democrats are warning the lack of a strong response from the White House will be a problem if the party hopes to turn out enough voters to maintain their narrow grip on Congress in the fall midterm elections.
But in this moment, governors may have unique tools that are more conducive to swift action than the president. Well positioned heading into the fall campaign and presiding over statehouses where Democrats are in control, Pritzker and Govs.
Kathy Hochul of New York and Gavin Newsom of California have wide latitude.
In New York, for instance, Hochul was undeterred by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state law and allowed most people to carry a handgun for personal protection.
“They may think they can change our lives with the stroke of a pen, but we have pens too,” Hochul said defiantly of the Supreme Court’s gun ruling.
In Illinois, Pritzker has said he would convene a special legislative session in coming weeks, to “more firmly protect” abortion rights.
Abortion rights will be on the California ballot in November, after legislators with Newsom’s blessing agreed last month to place a proposal before voters that would guarantee a right to an abortion in the state constitution.
Newsom has been especially vocal in rallying against the repeal of abortion rights even before the Supreme Court ruled. When a draft Supreme Court opinion surfaced in May suggesting the conservative majority was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, he delivered a withering critique of the national party, suggesting it was suffering from collective lethargy.
“Where is the Democratic Party?” he asked at the time, without naming anyone specifically but appearing to exclude Biden from criticism. “Why aren’t we standing up more firmly? More resolutely? Why aren’t we calling this out?”