Hey guys, we're about to give you my conversation with Elaine Godfrey from the Atlantic about abortion.

We taped this show before Ohio passed a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights,

before Andy Bashir won in Kentucky, partly because his Republican opponent was so extreme on abortion,

and Democrats took full control of the Virginia legislature under threat of an abortion ban.

I think the voters in this episode foreshadow all of that pretty well enjoy the show and I'm

gonna see you guys next week.

Hello everyone and welcome to the focus group podcast I'm Sarah Longwell publisher of the bulwark and this week we're tackling what's

thought to be one of the biggest issues for the 2024 election, abortion.

Now you may remember how in 2022 Republicans ran a lot of candidates whose positions on abortion were considered too extreme for a majority of

voters. So I was wondering how voters, especially suburban women who flipped from

Trump to Biden, are thinking about the abortion issue as we had into the 2024 cycle.

We found an interesting dynamic I want to explore. People do not want the extreme

restrictions on abortion many Republicans are pushing.

But if Donald Trump is going to be the nominee, which, spoiler alert, I'm very sure that he's

going to be, this is not necessarily going to be the most important thing to voters.

My guest today has written a great deal on the politics of abortion.

Elaine Godfrey, staff writer at the Atlantic.

Elaine, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Okay, so we haven't talked about the GOP primary on this show for a little bit, but you've been in New Hampshire covering

Nikki Haley.

You have a piece where you call her campaign rallies,

...