"What's the Matter With Kansas?"

That's the question conservatives must be asking themselves.

Kansas, a state the Republican Party brought into the Union in 1861 that has been Republican ever since - so much, in fact, that the state hasn't voted Democratic for President since 1964 and hasn't elected a Democratic senator since 1932 - held a referendum on changing the state constitution to allow the legislature to restrict abortion.  Despite - or maybe even because of, in some cases - the wording of the referendum question on the ballot, the amendment failed by a vote of nearly three to two.

The state's Republican legislators in Topeka managed to put it on the ballot in August, on the same day as the primary election when more Republicans would be voting than Democrats.  Pro-choice voters came out in unexpectedly huge numbers, though, voting at a rate normally expected for general elections.  This could be a harbinger for the November midterms in other states, where Democrats who had been struggling to gain traction despite the obvious flaws of their Republican opponents (*cough cough*, Val Demings, *cough cough*, Florida, *cough cough*) suddenly have a fighting chance of winning.

There's one wrinkle, of course,  Pro-life activists have made it clear that they're not done with trying to overturn abortion rights in Kansas yet  These are mostly the same people who have been trying to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.  This is eerily reminiscent of the political showdown in nd regarding Kansas when it was still a territory in the 1850s and its residents fought - literally, in many cases - whether or not to ban slavery.  The legitimate government in Leavenworth, which had the support of the majority of Kansas, banned slavery but a rival government in Lecompton, which supported slavery, got the recognition of President James Buchanan and the Democrats, Except Illinois senator and presidential hopeful Stephen Douglas, the defender of "popular sovereignty," The idea that the people should decide whether or not to allow slavery. Douglas recognized that a majority of Kansans weren't allowed to vote on the slavery issue, aware that the antislavery side would win.  To make a long story short, Douglas helped keep the Lecompton government from being recognized, paving the way for Kansas to be admitted later as a free state. Douglas kept his integrity but threw away any remaining chance he had to win the Presidency.  In the case of abortion, there was a vote taken, and the people were heard, loud and clear, but the pro-lifers have already decided that they don't like the results and will not stop until they get what they want.  They may already be figuring out how to legitimize overturning the will of the people in Kansas the way President Buchanan and his pro-slavery allies tried to legitimize the Lecompton government in the very same state. 

The war isn't over.  But pro-choice activists have, at least this time, won the battle.