less than two years ago in 2020, he won by nearly 15 points. kansas is a red, red state, and yet last night we saw a huge win for liberals in kansas. voters resoundingly rejected and an amendment removing abortion rights and protections for their stay caused to xin. voting it down 59 to 41%. now just to put that in a little bit more into context, to put the entire political earthquake into context, that ballot question was supposed to be an easy win for the antiabortion side. was not even supposed to be close. recent polls said the 47% of kansans plan to vote yes on the amendment compared to no gland vote no. and republicans were supposed to cruise to victory with their demographic advantage. last night most of the primary races were for republicans. there was not much incentive for democrats to even show up aside for this one ballot question.
have to look for what may possibly help. one thing that may help is these open primaries, where it will not have the trumpiest 5%, or 10% of the party determining who the nominees are. mona, if the republicans take the house in november, kevin mccarthy becomes speaker. and the big lie candidates like finch will take the secretary offices in key swing states states. is it hyperbole, exaggeration to say that the 2022 could end up being the last fully free and fair election for the u.s.? given that they will not allow democrats to win in 2024, they will not allow a free and fair election in 2024, are they? i think that is overstated. i think it has to be on our minds, and we have to be vigilant. obviously, these are just primaries, these are not general elections. a number of these extreme candidates will be defeated. but we saw in kansas suggests that the abortion matter is
outside the capitol in extreme heat fighting for this legislation. and stuart, who has stood with the families for the entire week at this to say last night. i m not sure i ve ever seen a situation where people who have already given so much had to fight so hard to get so little. and i hope we learn a lesson. i hope so too. that s tonight s rita. all increases to our snow tonight on all in what s the message that kansans sent to the rest of the country tonight? don t mess with us. a big night in kansas since political shockwaves across the nation as voters overwhelmingly turnout for abortion rights. last night the people of kansas sent a message to the clearest that ever i ve seen in politics. tonight with the huge turnout and decisive win means for the democrats in midterms.
accounted for 70% of all new registered voters in the state. yesterday s turnout blew away all expectations. on friday kansas secretary of state scott schwab predicted that about 36% of voters would participate in the primary election. 36%. last night as the numbers were all in, he said the actual number quote could be almost 50%. and at that point you re looking at general election numbers, as looking a lot like the 2008 turnout for the obama presidential race. so it s incredibly high turnout. more than 900,000 people voted in kansas, nearly twice as many as in the 2018 primary, and we are seeing some massive swings from the 2020 results. for example, franklin county in eastern kansas went for donald trump 68 to 30%. yesterday the people of franklin county rejected this amendment 56 to 44%. voters themselves were surprised, as one woman told an
it was a strategic in very cynical question to put this question on the primary ballot instead of the general election. proponents of the measure were hoping and planning for a low turnout. the question itself was intentionally garbled to confuse people. the text read in part quote, to the extent permitted by the constitution of the united states, the people through their elected state representatives and state senators may pass laws regarding abortion including but not limited to laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape, incest or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother. and they were asked to choose yes or no to that statement. with the yes vote being against abortion rights and a no vote supporting them. not exactly intuitive. but the people of kansas turned out to vote in droves and many of them were very concerned about this issue. after the supreme court decision overturning roe v. wade in june, voter registrations in kansas surged ne