On November 4, voters across the country will cast their ballots in state and local elections. The results of some of these races could have serious implications for access to abortion and other reproductive justice initiatives.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, abortion has become a major election issue Roe v. Wade in 2022. Of the ten states that proposed abortion-related ballot measures in 2024, voters in seven states passed pro-choice initiatives.
Abortion will not be explicitly discussed in the November 2025 elections. But candidates in several statewide and citywide races have made reproductive rights — or, in some cases, abortion restrictions — a key part of their platforms.
These are the races we’re watching this Election Day.
Virginia
Virginia is the last bastion of abortion access in the South, and the two candidates vying to become the state’s next governor have starkly different views on reproductive rights.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former U.S. congresswoman, has said she supports Virginia’s current abortion laws, which ban abortion after the end of the second trimester (or about 27 weeks). The laws contain exceptions to preserve the life or general health of the pregnant person, including mental health.
Her Republican opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, has expressed support for a six- or 15-week abortion ban.
Virginians will also select all 100 members of the House of Representatives, which is expected to approve a ballot initiative that will allow voters to decide in 2026 whether to include abortion rights in the state constitution. The measure passed the Virginia Senate once in January 2025, but lawmakers must again approve an identical proposal before it can go before voters.
The latest polls give Spanberger an advantage of 8 to 10 percentage points.
But the composition of the Legislature will have more influence on abortion rights, said Kyle Kondik, editor-in-chief of the nonpartisan University of Virginia Center for Politics newsletter Sabato’s Crystal Ball, in an interview with RNG earlier this month.
“The Democrats would probably still be favored to hold the House of Representatives,” he said, even if anti-abortion Earle-Sears became Virginia’s next governor.
New Jersey
The Garden State’s next governor could also dramatically change New Jersey’s abortion landscape.
The Guttmacher Institute, which conducts research on sexual and reproductive health and rights, considers the state’s abortion policy ‘very protective’. New Jersey does not set pregnancy limits in the area of abortion care, private health insurance required to cover abortion, and has a shield law protecting providers who provide abortion care in states with bans.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill supports existing state law, News from the United States reported. Republican candidate Jack Ciatarelli say he supports bans on abortion after twenty weeks and parental notification laws for minors seeking abortion care.
The current governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, is a Democrat term limited after eight years in office, signed abortion rights into state law in January 2022 through the Reproductive Freedom Act, six months before the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ended federal abortion protections. He too announced plans to stock up on mifepristoneone of two drugs commonly used in medication abortions in the US, in January 2025. The current status of the supply is unclear.
Ciatarelli opposes the Reproductive Freedom Act and is one of Ciatarelli’s staffers recently confirmed POLITICS that an anti-abortion state lawmaker is on the short list of potential candidates for the state Supreme Court.
The latest polls give Sherrill a lead of between 1 and 4 percentage pointsa very narrow lead some pollsters consider it a dead heat.
New York
The New York City mayoral election – largely a showdown between the states disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomowho lost the Democratic primary, and the Democratic candidate, progressive lawmaker Zohran Mamdani, have gained national attention as a clear indicator of the future of the Democratic Party.
But for New Yorkers, its more immediate impact could be a reduction in child care costs.
Raising children in the Big Apple is notoriously expensive. Mamdani, 34, has walked about making the city more affordable, and one of his campaign promises is to provide free childcare for children from six weeks to five years old. The latest polls give Mamdani a 5 to 16 percentage point lead over Cuomo. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa remains further behind.
New York City currently offers free pre-school education from 3 years. Until then, childcare may incur costs minimum $2,000 per month. Research shows that programs are fun universal childcare can increase the disposable income of families And increasing mothers’ ability to work.
Loving families is one well-known challenge in the largest city in the country.
The New York City Council in June 2025 approved $3 million for guaranteed income programs, such as the Bridge Project, which provide unconditional cash payments to parents for a set period of time, such as the first three years of a child’s life. The results have been life-changing for some families.
“More money equals more opportunity, more choices,” said Tegan Lecheler, Bridge Project national program director, in an earlier interview with RNG. “It means moving to a safer neighborhood. It means choosing to go back to work and place your child in daycare so you can have access to more nutritious food for you and your baby.”
Mayoral races
Other major US cities will select mayors on November 4, including Atlanta, Minneapolis and Seattle. Local leaders have major influence over reproductive rights — as Heidi Gerbracht wrote in 2022, “abortion clinics exist almost exclusively in cities, and city governments have the power to make it easier or harder to guarantee access.”
This article is adapted from a Bluesky thread.
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