Ever since SCOTUS pulled its gangland-style execution of Roe, Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo has been stumping for Democrats to make the issue the centerpiece of the midterm elections.
Obviously this makes a great deal of sense, and so just as obviously the people who run the Democratic Party will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing it. Marshall’s solution has been to query every Democratic senator on what he calls “Roe and Replace.” Here’s how he explains it:
We need to win two more Senate seats and hold the House, and then we will reform the filibuster to pass abortion protections.
That can’t happen until the 48 other Democrats are on the record promising to vote for the filibuster carveout if that situation emerges. The high likelihood that all of them will get on board at that later date, as indicated by their support of filibuster reform to pass voting rights legislation this January, is not enough to make that election promise. It creates room for doubt, leading to despair — a world where constituents and journalists start questioning how many more Democratic senators are needed, really. Three? Four? It becomes too steep of a climb.
I’m guessing you know where this is going. So far, 31 Democratic senators have taken Marshall’s pledge, while another 10 have said they support both Roe and filibuster reform without specifically linking the two. Manchin and Sinema both opposed, while Marshall calculates that two more, Angus King of Maine and Mark Warner of Virginia, are likely holdouts.
That leaves six senators who haven’t made clear their willingness to waive the filibuster for an abortion-rights vote. Naturally, Tom Carper and Chris Coons are among the six.
To be fair, they aren’t the only blue-state senators waffling — neither Cory Booker nor crooked Bob Menendez of New Jersey has committed either — and Marshall makes clear that all will eventually climb on board.
But, as usual, if you’re looking for bold leadership, find where Delaware’s senators are, then look in the opposite direction.