sure, kansas does sometimes elect moderate democratic governors but they haven t voted for a democrat for president since lyndon johnson. they haven t electioned a democratic senator since 1932. there s one elected democratic official in its entire congressional delegation. but it s not just any red state. it is kansas. which has been a national flash point over abortion rights since at least 1991, when anti-abortion activists from all over the country desended on the state and blocked access to abortion clinics for weeks, in what they called the summer of mercy. the abortion provider dr. george tiller was murdered by an anti-abortion activist in his church, in wichita, in 2009. the church by the way where he was murdered yesterday, it was a polling place. but the main reason that this resounding abortion rights victory in kansas is resonating
0 by nearly 20 points. and what is remarkable about the outcome is that kansas republicans did everything they possibly could to stack the deck in their favor. for starters, they scheduled the vote during a typically aug of during the general election, in november, because yesterday s primary featured mostly republican candidates running against each other and therefore would presumably attract mostly republican voters. they made the language of the ballot measure so dense and confusing that the normal person would be hard-pressed to deciph ter at first glance what a yes or a no vote even meant. republican groups barraged out misleading text messages that meant it sound like yes would protect a woman s right to choose when in fact, the opposite was true. voter turnout was massive. far from the usual trickle of voters for an august primary in a midterm year. turnout approached presidential election levels. and the votes to defeat the anti-abortion measure didn t just come from the urban