Politics

Florida voters fail to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

Florida voters fail to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution

NBC News projects that Florida has failed to enshrine protections for abortion access in the state constitution, essentially upholding the state’s six-week ban.

Amendment 4 failed to reach 60% of the vote needed for the proposal to pass, NBC News projects. The ballot initiative faced intense resistance from the start from Republican lawmakers, as well as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration. In 2023, as abortion-rights advocates were collecting petition signatures, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a brief with the state Supreme Court urging the justices to prevent the proposed amendment from going before voters. The court ultimately ruled that the proposal could appear on the ballot, while simultaneously upholding Florida’s six-week ban.

The DeSantis administration then waged what was essentially a campaign of intimidation and misinformation against Amendment 4. The administration oversaw the launch of a website replete with misleading details about the proposal, deployed state police to question people who had signed the petition, and tried to get TV stations to remove ads supporting Amendment 4.

Republican lawmakers also successfully pushed for revised language alongside the amendment that suggested a negative impact on state taxpayers, which Amendment 4 supporters called inaccurate and misleading. Three weeks out from Election Day, the DeSantis administration released a report accusing the ballot initiative organizers of using fraudulent signatures, and an anti-abortion group filed a lawsuit to get the measure removed based on that report.

Florida is the first state where an abortion rights ballot amendment has failed since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

DeSantis had warned that passage of Amendment 4 would represent “the end of the pro-life movement.” But despite state Republicans’ relentless attacks on the proposal, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump sought to distance himself from his fellow Florida Republicans’ extreme abortion stance; at one point, he even left open the possibility that he would support Amendment 4, though he later walked that back after intense criticism from his party.

On Tuesday, when pressed by a reporter on how he voted on Amendment 4, Trump snapped and said, “Just stop talking about that.”

Clarissa-Jan Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.

Politics

Cruz and Blackburn meet Trump to discuss tech policy

Published

7 hours ago

July 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Cruz and Blackburn meet Trump to discuss tech policy

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Politics

South Carolina Senate poll shows surprising frontrunner: Trey Gowdy

Published

7 hours ago

July 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy insists he’s not interested in running in the South Carolina special election. But a new poll suggests Gowdy would be formidable if he changed his mind.

Gowdy holds a massive lead over seven other potential and declared GOP candidates for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s seat, according to a poll from Republican-aligned firm Peak Insights that was obtained by POLITICO.

Gowdy draws 38 percent of the vote. The actual candidates in the race are bunched closely, with no clear frontrunner: Rep. Ralph Norman trails at 13 percent support, followed closely by both Rep. Russell Fry and Sen. Darline Graham, Lindsey’s sister who is running for a full term after being appointed, who both sit at 9 percent. Businessman Mark Lynch, a self-funder who lost a Senate primary to Graham last summer, pulls 7 percent support. The survey of 900 likely GOP primary voters for South Carolina’s special election was conducted before anyone formally entered the contest.

The election will be a test of Trump’s power. He endorsed Darline Graham last week, but that hasn’t stopped other prominent South Carolina Republicans from jumping in the race, all of them touting their loyalty to the president — despite not having his formal support.

And at least according to the poll, his endorsement doesn’t shift things much. When respondents are informed that Trump “asked Darline Graham Nordone to run in the special election for U.S. Senate, saying if she runs, she has his complete and total endorsement,” Graham’s support improves from 9 percent to 16 percent, and Gowdy falls from 38 percent to 35 percent.

The poll is a sign of why some prominent Republicans — like his longtime friend, Sen. Tim Scott — may want Gowdy in the race. Peak Insights has polled for Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as well as the NRSC and the Republican National Committee among many others.

Gowdy left the U.S. House in 2019 and now hosts a show on Fox News. Through a spokesperson, he said he “has not had any conversations about the open senate seat and does not have any interest in it.”

That hasn’t stopped Scott from pushing his longtime buddy to run. Scott advocated for Gowdy to be appointed to the vacant Senate seat after Lindsey Graham’s death, before South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to the seat. Scott announced last week he was recruiting Gowdy to run in the special election, before Graham announced she would run.

“I can’t think of a better person that I think best represents the heart of South Carolina than Trey Gowdy,” said Scott during a press conference Wednesday. “I’m trying to get him interested in it, but we’ll see if that works out at all.”

Scott and the NRSC have not yet issued an endorsement in the special election. Scott praised Graham during a Fox News interview Monday, saying she is “strong so far, calm under pressure, and really poised.”