One of our Bj peeps, hells littlest angel, has made the case for Josh Riley (NY-19) to be added to our Winnable House Races in Purple Districts thermometer. Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will be split 6 ways.
Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)
Sharice Davids (KS-03)
Gabe Vasquez (NM-02)
Elaine Luria (VA-02)
Susan Wild (PA-07)
Josh Riley (NY-19)
Winnable House Races Purple Districts
Josh Riley is about even in dollars with his opponent, with most of his funding coming from out of state. I can’t find any polling data, but the race is considered a toss-up.
Josh Riley on Choice:
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson, which overturned Roe v Wade, is an affront to progress, liberty, and women’s rights. We must not allow it to stand. (You can read Josh’s op-ed on this issue here.) Josh will take the following steps to fight back:
First, Josh will sponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify Roe’s protections in federal statute. The bill states that a health care provider has a right to provide abortion services, and the provider’s patient has a right to receive them—and that’s exactly the way the law should be.
Second, because it is not enough for Congress simply to codify Roe, Josh will also work to close the loopholes that states have used to create “bounty programs” to circumvent Roe’s protections. Congress should update jurisdictional and procedural statutes to make clear that the Justice Department and aggrieved individuals have recourse in the courts when their freedom is infringed.
Third, we must ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. In Dobbs, the Supreme Court concluded that the 14th Amendment’s protections for liberty do not cover abortion. Instead of relying on the 14th Amendment—and the Supreme Court’s incorrect interpretation of it—we should enact a new amendment making women’s reproductive freedom crystal clear. As an attorney, Josh submitted a federal court briefing arguing for ratification of the ERA, and he will continue that fight in Congress.
Fourth, the federal government should do everything it can to protect and expand women’s access to FDA-approved abortion medications, which are approved for the first ten weeks and are used for about 50% of abortions today. After a draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked in May, Josh sent a letter to the Justice Department, urging it to file lawsuits against states that try to ban those medications. Under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, the federal government’s ruling authorizing the use of abortion medications takes precedence over state laws prohibiting them – so women have a legal right to abortion medications today even with Roe being overturned. The Justice Department must enforce that right. In addition, Josh has written a letter to the FDA, urging it to extend its approval for these medications from 10 weeks to 12.
Fifth, Josh will use the congressional appropriations process to fight back against the Dobbs decision. A few years after Roe was decided, anti-choice lawmakers attached the Hyde Amendment to government funding bills to prohibit the use of federal funds for abortion services, thereby denying necessary medical care to low-income women. Now, in response to Dobbs, it is time for pro-choice lawmakers to turn the tables by attaching amendments to appropriations bills to withhold certain funding from states that restrict women’s access to reproductive healthcare.
Reminder: all of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall are in the sidebar, and available right here and through the link in the sidebar. Besides this one, there are thermometers for the AZ Executives (Firewall) and one for Charlie Crist so we can give DeSantis the boot, and make him a one-term governor and a zero-term president!
All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers
Totally open thread!
Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (NY-19 Added)Post + Comments (24)