Hi, this is Kelsey in Dayton, Ohio. It took me 18-year-old daughter to vote for the very first time

in Ohio's August special election. This podcast was recorded at 12.46 pm eastern time on Wednesday,

August 9, 2023. Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but we'll still be celebrating

our chance to make our voices heard in Ohio. Okay, here's the show.

A timely Kelsey time stamp. Yes, very timely. I still remember exactly what I voted on the first

time I voted, and I remember the day I registered. I also think it's good training to go to a special

election. Yeah, you know, I feel like if you're voting to know, you're like, I'm really

nailing the different expressions. Right, yeah. Hey there, it's the MPR Politics podcast. I'm Miles

Parks. I cover voting. I'm Kelsey Snell, I cover politics. And I'm Susan Davis, I also cover

politics. So we talked last week about this Republican led effort in Ohio to make ballot

initiatives harder to pass there. It was essentially a proxy battle on abortion because

an amendment is set to be on the ballot in November that would enshrine abortion rights in the

Constitution. And this week's proposal would have made it a lot harder to pass that amendment.

So last night in this special election, this Republican led effort failed pretty spectacularly.

And Sue Kelsey, this feels like just another piece of evidence that says abortion is a really potent

motivator for voters. Yeah, it absolutely is another piece of evidence in this kind of building

arsenal. The Democrats are looking out of ways to get voters to show up and vote

for major issues. And they're kind of hoping that this is something they can replicate

in the 2024 election. I think what's also interesting here is that it also speaks to

trend in conservative and conservative leaning states of still voting to affirm abortion rights.

And that is something the Democrats are watching very closely.

You know, I think there's a conflict here because in so many ways since the Dodd decisions,

...