(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut.
Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
IDF says 4 drones intercepted in north and east
The Israel Defense Forces said in a post to X on Monday that military aircraft intercepted four drones.
Some of the unmanned aircraft were intercepted after crossing into Israel from Lebanon, while the others were shot down before entering the east of the country from the direction of Syria and Iraq, the IDF said.
IDF claims killing of Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that it killed Hezbollah’s commander of the Baraachit area of southern Lebanon in an airstrike.
The IDF said Abu Ali Rida was responsible for rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israeli forces and commanded Hezbollah units in the Nabatieh area.
Israel notifies UN of plans to terminate cooperation with UNRWA
The Israeli government notified the United Nations of its plans to terminate cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly on Sunday.
UNRWA is the main U.N. agency operating in Gaza and is responsible for coordinating and supplying humanitarian aid. It also operates in the West Bank. The Israeli government has accused UNRWA of having ties to Hamas. After the initial accusations, the U.N. conducted an internal investigation, and some UNRWA staff members were fired.
Israel maintains that UNRWA still has ties to Hamas. But aid organizations warn if the agency stops operating in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis there will only worsen.
Israel’s termination of UNRWA in the country follows legislation passed by Israel’s parliament at the end of October severing the country’s ties with the organization.
Israel’s governmental body passed two bills — one banning UNRWA from operating in Israel, including in east Jerusalem, and another prohibiting any Israeli state or government agency from working with UNRWA or anyone on its behalf.
The legislation has a three-month waiting period before it goes into effect. It is set to go into effect at the end of January.
Israeli Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jacob Blitshtein wrote in the letter released Sunday that Israel will “continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security.”
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Northern Gaza hospital says Israeli artillery fire injured children
The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said Israeli artillery fire hit a floor of the hospital, injuring children who were being treated there.
The hospital also said there was heavy bombing overnight on the block where it is located, threatening the nearby Al Yemen al Saeed Hospital.
The hospital director said in a statement on Sunday the glass of the doors and windows of the facility were shattered by the force of the blasts.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut.
Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
60 rockets fired into Israel, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said that at least 60 rockets were fired into Israel by Hezbollah on Monday.
Some of the rockets were intercepted and others fell “in open areas,” the IDF wrote on X.
The IDF also said it attacked one Hezbollah launcher suspected of firing up to 30 rockets, posting what it said was a video of the strike to its X page.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti
Israeli strikes kill 31 in Gaza, health officials say
Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in Gaza on Sunday.
Almost half of the deaths occurred in northern areas, health officials said, where Israel Defense Forces troops are pressing an intense campaign intended to root out surviving Hamas fighters and stop its units from regrouping.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that around 1,800 people have been killed and 4,000 injured by Israel’s north Gaza campaign, with “widespread destruction of hospitals and infrastructure.”
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Guy Davies
IDF says 4 drones intercepted in north and east
The Israel Defense Forces said in a post to X on Monday that military aircraft intercepted four drones.
Some of the unmanned aircraft were intercepted after crossing into Israel from Lebanon, while the others were shot down before entering the east of the country from the direction of Syria and Iraq, the IDF said.
IDF claims killing of Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that it killed Hezbollah’s commander of the Baraachit area of southern Lebanon in an airstrike.
The IDF said Abu Ali Rida was responsible for rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israeli forces and commanded Hezbollah units in the Nabatieh area.
Israel notifies UN of plans to terminate cooperation with UNRWA
The Israeli government notified the United Nations of its plans to terminate cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly on Sunday.
UNRWA is the main U.N. agency operating in Gaza and is responsible for coordinating and supplying humanitarian aid. It also operates in the West Bank. The Israeli government has accused UNRWA of having ties to Hamas. After the initial accusations, the U.N. conducted an internal investigation, and some UNRWA staff members were fired.
Israel maintains that UNRWA still has ties to Hamas. But aid organizations warn if the agency stops operating in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis there will only worsen.
Israel’s termination of UNRWA in the country follows legislation passed by Israel’s parliament at the end of October severing the country’s ties with the organization.
Israel’s governmental body passed two bills — one banning UNRWA from operating in Israel, including in east Jerusalem, and another prohibiting any Israeli state or government agency from working with UNRWA or anyone on its behalf.
The legislation has a three-month waiting period before it goes into effect. It is set to go into effect at the end of January.
Israeli Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jacob Blitshtein wrote in the letter released Sunday that Israel will “continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security.”
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Northern Gaza hospital says Israeli artillery fire injured children
The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said Israeli artillery fire hit a floor of the hospital, injuring children who were being treated there.
The hospital also said there was heavy bombing overnight on the block where it is located, threatening the nearby Al Yemen al Saeed Hospital.
The hospital director said in a statement on Sunday the glass of the doors and windows of the facility were shattered by the force of the blasts.
(WASHINGTON) — All eyes will be on the key swing states as votes are counted in the match-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Both candidates have crisscrossed the seven key swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and worked to appeal to undecided voters and connect with them over the issues that resonate most with them.
While voters in these battleground states share the same concerns as the rest of Americans, there are some issues that stand out as top concerns for their residents — with the economy reigning supreme as a key voter issue with just days left until Election Day.
It’s the economy
“The No. 1 issue is the same as it always is, which is, it’s the economy. And of course, the economy has multiple dimensions to it. We have the growth rate, we have unemployment, we have consumer confidence, and, of course, inflation,” said Todd Belt, director of George Washington University’s Political Management program.
When it comes to the economy, 44% percent of Americans say they’re not as well off now as they were when President Joe Biden took office, tying the most negative number on this question in data since 1986, according to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Further, while inflation has eased and employment is strong, those gains haven’t hit home for most people: 59% say the economy is getting worse, more than twice as many as say it’s getting better (23%). And among registered voters who say the economy’s worsening, Trump leads Harris by a sweeping 53 points, 74-21%.
A 538 analysis of polls found that virtually all of the swing states have ranked the economy as a top voter issue — some for varying reasons. Still, Belt said the economy is “the No. 1 issue everywhere you go.”
In Nevada, its economy, to a unique degree, depends on the hospitality industry — making the economy a top issue for voters in that state. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, makes up about 75% of the state’s population — and a significant number of hospitality workers. Likely because of these factors, Nevada voters ranked the economy as the most important issue facing their state, according to poll analysis from 538.
Home prices, fracking, immigration
Housing affordability is another top issue for voters in swing states such as Nevada and North Carolina, where home prices have surged.
The median home price in North Carolina grew from $193,200 in the 2017-19 survey to $280,600 in the 2020-22 survey, the seventh-largest increase in the nation in percentage terms, according to the American Community Survey. And in Nevada, the Home Value Index has grown 34 percent since the start of the Biden presidency, slightly faster than the rate of increase nationwide, according to Zillow.
The cost of groceries, gasoline and housing resonates with voters across several swing states, Belt added.
“The issue of the economy, of course, has to do with the affordability of living. This is what we call, you know, our kitchen table, pocketbook issue,” Belt said. “It has to do deal with groceries, with gasoline. And, of course, what’s been people commenting about most of all is housing costs as well.”
In battleground Pennsylvania, fracking is a big local issue and has ties to both the economy and the environment.
Immigration is another key issue for many swing-state voters — especially those in the Sun Belt. Arizona, a border state, has been a regular campaign stop for Trump and Harris, who have often discussed immigration while there. It’s also top of mind for voters in Nevada — a state where Hispanic and Latinos are the largest minority group with 28% of its population.
“People do have [immigration] on their minds because it has been pushed as a big issue in the media,” Belt said.
Trump has used immigration to hit Harris’ immigration policies, putting the blame squarely on her for the situation at the border as he latches on to his inaccurate reference to her as the “border czar.”
Immigration is often tied to other key issues such as crime, Belt noted — a tactic Trump has employed on the campaign trail.
Despite the fact that U.S. citizens commit crimes at higher rates than undocumented immigrants, Trump painted them as “criminals” who will “cut your throat” at a campaign stop in Wisconsin in September. Also, while in Tempe, Arizona, last week, Trump criticized the Biden-Harris administration for its handling of the border, calling the United States a “garbage can for the world.”
Abortion
Abortion is a key voter issue after the Supreme Court in 2022 overruled Roe vs. Wade, which secured the constitutional right to abortion. The Supreme Court decision, which Trump often brags about his role in, is an issue that Democrats have seized on this cycle.
“The Democrats believe that this is the kryptonite for the Republicans in the last couple of elections,” Belt said.
Abortion remains a rallying issue among Democrats who were able to stave off a “red wave” during the 2022 midterms by centering their messages around it. Harris’ campaign claims reproductive freedom is still one of the top issues among undecided voters.
Several states, including battlegrounds Arizona and Nevada, have ballot measures that would amend their state constitutions with specific language to protect or recognize the right to an abortion for all constituents.
Polls show abortion is a more important issue in Wisconsin than it is nationally, according to poll analysis by 538. The legal status of abortion was hotly contested in the state after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, leading to a 15-month period in which no legal abortions were performed in the state under an 1849 law that criminalized abortion.
Even with other issues on swing states’ radar, Belt noted that both Harris and Trump work to tie messaging back to the economy.
“You’ll see candidates like Donald Trump talk about how immigration is impacting the economy and jobs,” he said. “And so there are these auxiliary issues that they’re trying to push, but they also tie them to the economy, because they know that’s what voters care about the most.”
(WASHINGTON) — Election officials across the country are trying to prepare for what’s out of their control.
When millions of Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, some voters might encounter minor issues including equipment malfunctions or delays. Election officials say that they are prepared for those inevitable challenges, which can come up every election year — but that they struggle with the torrent of misinformation that could follow, where bad actors or election skeptics will sometimes use minor issues to amplify unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.
A preview of that problem played out last week in Kentucky when a voter shared a video online of what officials called a “user error” on an electronic ballot-marking machine that created the false impression the device was switching votes from Donald Trump to Kamala Harris. Election officials said the machine produces a paper ballot, which the user then has multiple opportunities to confirm before their vote is scanned — and that the voter who posted the video was able to cast their ballot as intended.
After the machine was taken out of service, Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown shared a video online demonstrating the machine working without issue and said that officials struggled to replicate the error. But the damage was already done, with the original video amassing tens of millions of views on social media, where it was shared by users suggesting that voting machines were being used to rig the election.
Nevertheless, the incident in Kentucky underscores what election experts have been stressing to the voting public: While minor glitches may occur at a few isolated polling places, they are not an indication of widespread voter fraud.
“I hate that this has occurred here in Laurel County,” Brown posted. “We strive to have accurate, secure and safe elections that we are proud to provide to our citizens.”
Anticipating similar issues on Election Day, election officials in some counties have prepared pre-written fact checks that can be shared online to quickly counter misinformation before it spreads.
“If there’s an issue that comes up on Election Day, we can kind of say, like, ‘Here’s something that you might have seen, here’s actually what happened,'” said Samantha Shepherd, communications manager for Loudon County, Virginia. “That’s kind of our crisis communication plan for mis- and disinformation.”
Election workers hope that clear communication and transparency can stem the tide of what Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, describes as a “fire hose of disinformation” targeting the integrity of the country’s elections.
“Election officials have never been better prepared to deliver safe and secure and free and fair elections for the people,” Easterly said.
That security stems in part from built-in redundancies that allow officials to securely administer the election, even if equipment fails.
“We have paper backup nearly in every jurisdiction across this country, so that we can rely on that if technology is not there to assist us,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Across the country, 97% of voters will cast ballots in jurisdictions that provide verifiable paper backups, Easterly said.
That means if an electronic voting machine breaks down, election workers can return to traditional paper ballots, said Derek Tisler, an attorney with the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit think tank. In a case like the ballot-marking device that was at issue in Kentucky, the paper ballot showed that the voter’s selection had to be corrected, which it was before their vote was actually cast.
“The common theme that we see with so many of the backups, specifically for technical issues, is that there is usually a very simple, paper-based system that can keep things moving smoothly until the issue can be resolved,” said Tisler.
Tisler also said there’s increased transparency in the aftermath of the 2020 election, with poll watchers able to oversee most elements of election administration, and election workers often operating in two-person or bipartisan teams.
“We are wide open. You can come in anytime,” said Aaron Ammons, the clerk in Champaign County, Illinois. “The public can come and see the process from A to Z, and I strongly encourage them.”
The decentralized nature of the country’s election infrastructure also protects against widespread fraud, according to experts. Instead of operating under a single nationwide system, elections are generally run on the county level, with some states like Wisconsin and Michigan running elections through thousands of municipal clerks — an arrangement that helps prevent bad actors from causing large-scale systemic problems.
“We have a large and decentralized election system that’s run in counties and cities across the country, and it’s natural that there’ll be some bumps in the road,” said Brian Hinkle, senior voting policy researcher at the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank. “But in the end, these election officials take great pains to make sure the process is accurate, safe and secure.”
(TALLAHASSEE, FL) — Desmond Meade was recalling to a church congregation in Apopka, Florida, earlier this month a dark time in his life. “Not too long ago, I was standing in front of the railroad tracks, waiting for a train to come so I could jump in front of it,” he said.
That was in 2005, and Meade was addicted to crack-cocaine, homeless, jobless and recently released from prison after he was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon. Or, as he refers to his status during that time: a “returning citizen.”
The train Meade was going to jump in front of to take his own life never came. He saw it as a sign, crossed the railroad tracks and entered into rehab, later moving into a homeless shelter, earning associate degrees, a bachelor’s, and eventually a law degree from Florida International University.
Now he is the founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), an organization that fights for the voting rights of people released from prison and has successfully restored voting rights for more than 1.4 million Floridians through Amendment 4, a 2018 ballot initiative that gives people voting rights if they complete their sentences from felony convictions.
“We don’t use that ‘F’ word because there is a person’s mother, father, sister, brother that lives behind that scarlet letter of shame,” Meade told ABC News during a recent interview at the FRRC offices in Orlando, Florida.
“When you talk about a person who has been impacted by the criminal justice system, they’re not throwaways,” Meade said. “Rather than, when you look at me, see what’s wrong with this country, man, no, you can look at me and see what’s possible with this country. Man, that we are a nation of second chances; that we are a nation of overcoming against all odds.”
Meade travels around the state to different communities in an FRRC bus, implementing programs for people who finished their sentences to expunge their records, register them to vote, find legal services and pay for court fees. His work earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in 2023, a place on Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2019 and a fellowship for the MacArthur Foundation’s class of 2021.
“The quicker we help a person reintegrate, the least likely they are to re-offend, and everybody benefits from that,” Meade said.
A year after Florida ratified Amendment 4, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 7066, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law, requiring that even after serving their time, those leaving the system need to pay all of the related costs ordered by the court before being eligible to vote. People convicted of murder or felony sexual assault are an exception and are not allowed to vote.
Over the last eight years, Florida has had the largest number of people, out of any state in the country, who have come out of prison and are unable to vote — often because they cannot afford to pay the court-ordered monetary sanctions, according to The Sentencing Project.
In 2022, DeSantis established a new election crime and security unit and announced the arrest of 20 individuals who allegedly had voted after being convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense.
“The state of Florida has charged and is in the process of arresting 20 individuals across the state for voter fraud,” DeSantis announced at a press conference in August 2022.
Neither Gov. DeSantis nor Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd immediately responded to ABC News’ request for a statement.
“At the end of the day, my sons do not stop being my sons,” Meade said about his children when they disappoint him. “And I don’t think that any person should stop being an American citizen just because of a mistake they made, especially when that mistake is like 10, 15, 20 years ago. That doesn’t make sense.”
FRRC’s work is a family affair for Meade, his wife Sheena Meade and their five children, who canvass communities, door-knock and man a phone bank to spread voter education and register people to vote.
The FRRC has raised about $30 million to pay court fees for approximately 44,000 people in Florida who finished their prison sentences. But Meade said it’s not about who people vote for. Rather, he just wants them to get involved in the political process.
“If you’re fighting only for voting rights of people who you think might vote like you, you’re not engaging in democracy work, you’re engaging in partisan work,” Meade said. “Our democracy needs less partisanship and more collective participation.”
Neil Volz, deputy director for the FRRC, was convicted of felony corruption and fraud conspiracy while he was working in Washington, D.C., with now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to the Department of Justice. Volz first met Meade at an FRRC event in Florida.
“I’ll never forget the words he said. He said nobody’s got a monopoly on the pain caused by felony disenfranchisement,” Volz told ABC News during an interview in Apopka, Florida. “The vision that he was casting was much bigger than race, was much bigger than politics, was much bigger than economics.”
Meade said that restrictive voting laws for people who have come out of prison in Florida stem from archaic Jim Crow-era legislation passed when voter suppression of African Americans surged during Segregation. Back then, voting obstacles included poll taxes, literacy tests and intimidation tactics – sometimes from law enforcement. But the FRRC founder said that he owes it to those who came before him to uphold the rights for which they fought.
“They did that not for them. They did it for me. And if I don’t vote, then what I’ve said is that they died in vain,” Meade said. “That I was not worth the sacrifice that they made. And I know I am.”
Henry Walker, who was released from prison after serving three years for illegal possession of a firearm, will be voting for the first time ever in the 2024 election because of help from the FRRC.
“FRRC helped to give the opportunities. That’s all it takes is the opportunity to tell my story so that someone like me, a returning citizen, can see it,” Walker told ABC News during an interview in Orlando, Florida. “And tell themselves: ‘If he can do it, I can do it.’”
Barbara Haynes, a woman who finished her prison sentence and fought for 20 years to get her voting rights, was finally able to register to vote with the help of Amendment 4 and the FRRC, according to Meade. At that point, she had less than 6 months to live because of a terminal illness.
“Her dying wish was so basic; she just wanted to feel what it felt like to be a part of something bigger,” Meade said. “To be a part of this democracy.”
Haynes died weeks after registering to vote and before she could cast her ballot, according to the FRRC founder.
“And that just ripped my heart in pieces,” Meade said. “She didn’t get that opportunity. How many people didn’t get that opportunity?”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Footage of a vehicle explosion taken by a driver on I-96 in Webberville, Mich., Nov. 2, 2024. (Simon Schuster)
(LANSING, MI) — A semitractor-trailer crashed into backed-up traffic on a Michigan interstate, killing four people and injuring 17 others just before midnight on Saturday, police said.
Troopers with the Michigan State Police had been stationed on Interstate 96, controlling traffic as workers installed power lines across the road, the department said in a statement.
Prior to the crash, “numerous” cars had come to a halt in the expressway’s westbound lane near the intersection with M-52, police said. The work, which was being done by Consumers Energy, required the road to be completely shut down for a short period, police.
Those vehicles had just begun moving again when the truck crashed into them, police said.
“It appears the driver of the semi-truck did not see the backup and could not stop his vehicle in time,” police said. “The semi-truck was in the left lane of travel and struck numerous vehicles.”
The truck and more than a dozen other vehicles caught fire after the crash, police said.
“Seventeen vehicle occupants have been transported to UM Sparrow Hospital and McLaren Hospital in Lansing for serious injuries,” police said.
Kristin Gambardella speaks to ABC News. (ABC News)
(PHOENIX) — Kristin and Dave Gambardella never expected the journey of growing their family to include an abortion procedure, but in summer 2023, the married couple nevertheless found themselves in a Planned Parenthood parking lot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a seven-hour drive from their home in Tucson, Arizona.
A week beforehand, a routine blood test at 17 weeks into Kristin’s pregnancy had come back with devastating results. A follow-up ultrasound confirmed her doctors’ fears. The fetus had a severe genetic abnormality.
“They told us it was really a guaranteed short life, full of pain and surgeries and constant medical care,” Gambardella said. “Dave is a stoic person,” she said of her husband, “and I remember he just broke down and lost it. And that’s when I really felt that feeling in my gut that was like, wow, this is pretty catastrophic.”
In deciding to end the pregnancy, the Gambardellas realized they weren’t only tasked with an agonizing decision for their family — they also had an Arizona law to contend with, which would prevent them from seeing any of their own doctors for the procedure.
“The doctor, I remember, she looked at me and her eyes just looked really sad. And she said, ‘No, you can’t come here. We can’t do that procedure for you. You’d have to leave the state’,” Gambardella said.
Arizona’s abortion ban
In Arizona — one of 21 states that has enacted abortion restrictions since the end of Roe v Wade — abortion is banned after 15 weeks, except for medical emergencies endangering the life of the mother. Gambardella didn’t qualify for that exception.
“As someone who has always believed in a woman’s right to make decisions about her own bodies, it was such a turning point in my understanding on just how much abortion care is interconnected with fertility care and the act of wanting to have a baby,” Gambardella said.
The experience inspired her to join the campaign to pass Proposition 139, a ballot measure that would enshrine in Arizona’s state constitution the right to an abortion until fetal viability.
Arizona is one of 10 states in the country that have such measures on the ballot this November, including Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska.
This large push nationwide comes as abortion access remains one of the most important issues to voters this election — and the top issue for women under 30, according to an October survey by KFF, the nonpartisan health policy organization.
Where the candidates stand
Democrats hope that the issue could drive enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris, who has centered her campaign on restoring reproductive rights and attacking former President Donald Trump for nominating the conservative Supreme Court justices that voted to overrule Roe v. Wade.
Trump, who has repeatedly shifted his position on abortion from supporting a federal ban to declaring that he would not pass one, while remaining open to other reproductive health care restrictions, maintains that he will “protect women,” but is sparse on details.
It’s not clear, however, if abortion-access ballot measures will alter the outcome of the presidential race in a swing state like Arizona. Voters could split the ticket — voting to enshrine abortion access, but prioritizing other issues in their presidential choice.
Trump is leading Harris in Arizona by two points, according to 538’s latest polling average, even as polling so far has shown the abortion access amendment in Arizona to be widely popular, with about 60% of likely voters saying they’ll support it.
That level of support is in line with the success of abortion rights ballot measures in other states over the last two years since Roe v. Wade was overruled. Reproductive rights ballot measures have passed every time they’ve been on the ballot, whether the state leans Republican, Democrat or is closely divided like Arizona.
Susan Ashley, a retiree and a volunteer for the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign, says her “fury” over Roe vs. Wade being overturned drove her to make the initiative her “full-time job right now.”
“I’ve been an active voter, but I’ve never been involved in an event where there were so many passionate volunteers. And so this struck a nerve,” Ashley said.
Efforts on the ground
Athena Salman, a former Arizona state representative and director of Arizona campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All, was at Ashley’s side for door-knocking in mid-October, in the 90-degree heat.
The two women spoke to nearly a dozen registered Independents in a neighborhood of Chandler, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. Each voter they spoke to said they were supporting the ballot measure.
“I think it really shows that Arizonans are just fed up with their reproductive freedom being up in the air and they’re ready to take action and get the government interference out of our personal decisions,” Salman said.
Though Arizona currently bans abortion at 15 weeks, the state saw all abortions halted for four months in the summer of 2022 when a ban from 1864 was revived. It nearly took effect again in the spring of 2024, but the Arizona state legislature repealed it after massive outcry from residents and a push from the Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes.
To Cindy Dahlgren, spokesperson for the campaign against the abortion access ballot measure, the legislature’s decision to repeal the near-total abortion ban and keep a 15-week ban should put people at ease.
“Proponents play on those fears and that confusion by saying there’s a ban when there’s not a ban,” she said, arguing that the current law only curtails the procedure but doesn’t fully ban it. “I would also point out that it was the legislature that repealed that law. And there doesn’t seem to be an appetite to put that law back in.”
Her campaign, called “It Goes Too Far,” argues that enshrining abortion access until fetal viability would remove too many restrictions around abortion, leaving it too unregulated.
“The choice really in November is not between abortion or no abortion. It’s between limited abortion and safety precautions and a doctor and parents involved or unlimited and unregulated abortion,” Dahlgren said.
Asked about cases like Gambardella’s, where pregnancy complications arise in the second trimester, or women who experience rape or incest and do not qualify for an exception, Dahlgren said, “we do not have to enshrine a very extreme abortion amendment to care for those victims.”
But Dr. Misha Pangasa, an OB-GYN with Planned Parenthood, one of only nine clinics in Arizona providing abortion care, said she doesn’t want to leave reproductive rights up to the political makeup of the state legislature anymore.
“The idea that Arizonans health care is at the whims of whichever legislature is holding the majority is never going to be the best way for people to get the best care,” Pangasa said.
There are currently around 40 laws that restrict abortions in the state of Arizona, which Pangasa said have already significantly impacted her ability to provide care to pregnant patients.
“Pregnancy is complicated and decisions at various stages are hard. And I am the one there helping support them. And what I wish that our government would do is just let me,” Pangasa said.
Pangasa said she sees patients like the Gambardellas on a regular basis.
“To be honest, it’s a really heartbreaking moment to be in when I talk to my patients and say, if you were in a different state with me right now, I would tell you that these are your options. But because we’re in Arizona, an abortion is just not an option,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic National Committee on Saturday is launching a new ad campaign targeted at rural voters to boost turnout in two southern battlegrounds in the final days of the presidential election.
The effort, backed by a six-figure media buy, comes as Democrats are especially concerned that early vote turnout is low among Black voters in rural areas. The effort will span 15 counties that are part of the “Black Belt” in Georgia and North Carolina.
The ads, which will run on multi-media billboards and on radio stations in the area, will feature DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, a Black South Carolinian who has spoken extensively of his upbringing in rural Orangeburg. The effort will promote policies that Democrats say will help rural voters, including expanding rural infrastructure, making health care more affordable and ensuring rural hospitals can remain open.
“In the final days of this election, Democrats are not taking our foot off the gas as we communicate our plan for rural America. From affordable and accessible health care, to lower costs, and economic opportunities, the Democratic Party will fight for the policies that make a tangible difference for rural Americans,” Harrison said in a statement provided first to ABC News.
“Growing up in a rural town, I know how important it is to show up and truly meet rural voters where they are. The DNC’s latest rural ‘I Will Vote’ initiative does exactly that, ensuring that the final message rural voters in the critical battlegrounds of Georgia and North Carolina receive in this election is Democrats’ commitment to fight for them.”
The ad buy comes as Democrats grow concerned that Black rural voters are not participating in early voting at the rate that the party needs.
Democrats hope to be competitive in Georgia and North Carolina, where Black rural voters are key. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to clean up in urban areas, but she’ll have to keep former President Donald Trump’s rural margins down enough to stop him from offsetting her advantage in cities like Atlanta and Raleigh.
In Georgia, 41% of early voters are Republican, and 42% are Democrats, according to 538 analysis of voter data from L2, a non-partisan political data company. In 2020, early voting was 41% Republican – 46% Democrat.
It’s the same story in North Carolina, where 34% of early vote ballots have been cast by Republicans, and 33% by Democrats. In 2020, early voting was 32% Republican – 35% Democrat.
Of voters who voted early in 2020, only 66% of Black voters have cast an early ballot this time around so far. That number drops to 63% of Black voters in rural areas.
The drop is likely explainable in part by this year’s election not taking place in the middle of a pandemic, whereas in 2020, many voters leaned on early and absentee voting to avoid long lines and possible COVID-19 exposures.
Still, both states remain highly competitive. Polling averages from 538 show Trump up 1.6 points in Georgia and 1.3 points in North Carolina.
Early voting has also had some promising signs for Democrats, including high female turnout, particularly as polls show a widening gender gap, with women leaning toward Harris and men toward Trump.
And while operatives said Democrats were not hitting their marks with Black rural voters early on, that trend has begun to be mitigated, with veteran North Carolina Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson conceding that while “they had started early vote a little low,” the turnout has “picked up pretty substantially.”
“My suspicion is by Saturday’s close, they’ll be at parity with where they were four years ago,” added Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College in North Carolina who is tracking the early vote numbers.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris said former President Donald Trump will roll back health care protections if he wins the presidential election.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Madison, Wisconsin, Harris said Trump unsuccessfully tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the landmark law signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010, while he was president.
“Insurance companies could go back to a time where they would deny you coverage for health insurance based on pre-existing conditions, such being a survivor of breast cancer, asthma, diabetes,” Harris said. “The American people, regardless of who they are voting for, know the importance of Obamacare in terms of expanding coverage to health care, based on the fundamental principle I hold deeply: access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege for those who can afford it.”
“Health care for all Americans is on the line in this election,” Harris continued.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump falsely claimed not wanting to end the ACA, even though he repeatedly tried to do so while president.
Here is what we know about Trump’s health care agenda if he is elected to a second term:
‘Concepts’ of a heath care plan
During the ABC News presidential debate in September, Trump said he was interested in replacing the ACA — also known as “Obamacare” — but implied that he didn’t have any specific plans in place.
“Obamacare was lousy health care. Always was,” Trump said. “It’s not very good today and, what I said, that if we come up with something, we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it.”
When asked to clarify if he had a health care plan, the former president said he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the ACA but provided no details.
“If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population, less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it,” Trump said.
After Harris’ press conference on Thursday, Trump took to Truth Social to deny wanting to end the ACA.
“Lyin’ Kamala is giving a News Conference now, saying that I want to end the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing,” he wrote Thursday morning.
Trump made several attempts to repeal the ACA during his presidency but failed to do so.
He attempted to partially repeal the ACA by passing the American Health Care Act (ACHA). The plan would have repealed the individual mandate and the employer mandate, amended Medicaid eligibility and weakened protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.
The ACHA passed the House in May 2017 but failed to pass in the Senate. Perhaps mostly infamously, the Senate attempted to pass a so-called “skinny repeal” in late July 2017 but it was rejected, with Republican Sens. John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski siding with Senate Democrats to kill the bill.
During a closed-door campaign event for a fellow Republican House candidate earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that there will be “no Obamacare.”
“We want to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state,” Johnson said in footage first reported by NBC News. “Health care is one of the sectors, but we need this across the board.”
“No Obamacare?” an attendee of the event asked Johnson.
“No Obamacare,” Johnson replied. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”
Trump’s campaign has worked to separate itself from the speaker’s comments with Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, telling ABC News in a statement that repealing the ACA is “not President Trump’s policy position.”
“As President Trump has said, he will make our health care system better by increasing transparency, promoting choice and competition, and expanding access to new affordable health care and insurance options. Kamala Harris broke our health care system, President Trump will fix it,” the statement continued.
The 2024 GOP platform currently calls for expanding access to “new” affordable health care and prescription drug access as well as protecting Medicare and increasing transparency in the health care sector.
Trump enlists Kennedy to oversee health care policy
Trump has also suggested that he intends to tap Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. — who dropped out of the presidential race in August and endorsed Trump — to help shape health care policies if he wins a second term.
During the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner — an annual white-tie dinner to raise money for Catholic charities — earlier this month, Trump said Kennedy will “make us a healthier place.”
“We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe reign him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the dinner. “I think he’s a — he’s a good man, and he believes, he believes the environment, the healthy people. He wants healthy people, he wants healthy food. And he’s going to do it. He’s going to have a big chance to do it, because we do need that.”
Kennedy said Trump has “promised” him “control of the public health agencies,” but Trump’s team said no decisions have been made yet on who will be leading these agencies if he wins the election.
However, Trump implied during a rally in Henderson, Nevada, on Thursday that Kennedy would play a role in shaping women’s health care policies.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we have,” Trump said. “And he’s gonna work on health, and women’s health, and all of the different reasons ’cause we’re not really a wealthy or a healthy country. We’re not.”
There are currently no women’s health care issues listed in the 2024 GOP platform aside from keeping “men out of women’s sports.”
“The only thing President Trump and his campaign team are focused on is winning on November 5th. Everything after that is after that, and President Trump has made clear that Bobby Kennedy will play an important role,” Jason Miller, senior adviser to the Trump campaign told ABC News in a statement.
In response to Trump saying Kennedy will oversee women’s health, Harris reposted a clip of Trump’s comments on X with the caption “No” followed by a heart emoji.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim, Will McDuffie, Lauren Peller and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
A screengrab from a video which purports to show Haitian migrants voting in Georgia. The intelligence community assessed on Friday that the video was part of a Russian influence operation to sow discord in the Election. Obtained by ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The origins of the video that falsely showed individuals from Haiti voting in Georgia is the work of Russian influence actors, the intelligence community assessed on Friday.
“The IC assesses that Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia,” according to a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA).
“This judgment is based on information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities. The Georgia Secretary of State has already refuted the video’s claims as false.”
CISA is the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
The intelligence community also found that Russian actors falsely shared a video of an individual associated with a democratic campaign falsely taking a bribe from an entertainer.
“In the lead up to Election Day and in the weeks and months after, the IC expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans,” the joint statement said.
This is the second time in two weeks the intelligence community has alerted Americans of a Russian influence operation.
Last Friday, intelligence officials assessed that a video purporting to show ripped ballots in Pennsylvania was also part of a Russian influence operation.
Russia, along with Iran and China are seeking to sow discord and undermine confidence in the 2024 presidential election, according to the CISA director.
“We have to understand what these adversaries want,” CISA Director Jen Easterly told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas on Thursday. “They all want just two things. They want to undermine American confidence in our elections and trust in democracy, and they want to stoke partisan discord. They want to pit Americans against each other, and they are looking for any opportunities to create rage, and we know that enragement equals engagement.”
Easterly said the government will be “leaning forward” in debunking foreign influence operations.
Since the summer, the intelligence community has warned that foreign adversaries will try and influence the election.
Just hours prior to the notification was made by the intelligence community on Friday, a senior CISA official was briefing reporters: election security is national security, and said CISA is monitoring both the physical and cyber threats ahead of the 2024 election.
The official did not single out any one individual, but did say that anyone who knowingly puts out disinformation is “putting election officials at harm.”
When someone puts out misinformation they are “doing the work of our foreign adversaries, and it’s an important reminder to know that these are the tactics that they’re out there leveraging,” and added that there are real-world sometimes violent consequences to the disinformation.
