That is the question being asked at Politico. Crediting campaign ads of the kind posted below, Alexander Burns writes:
"By branding Republican challengers as outside the cultural mainstream on the issue, Democrats managed to hold on to at least a slice of the political center by courting and winning over moderate women in a handful of key states.... As many of the anti-abortion Democrats elected over the last four years were going down in defeat, the party made abortion a central concern in a handful of battleground Senate races — and they ended up in the Democratic column as a result. In Colorado, Sen. Michael Bennet won reelection by less than 16,000 votes over Republican prosecutor Ken Buck — a tea party-backed conservative with down-the-line anti-abortion views — after defeating him handily among women."
It's far from clear that abortion was as decisive as Burns suggests. Nonetheless it will be interesting if Democrats conclude that abortion is an issue that can help them defend blue states.
