Fairness Project’s Kelly Hall Featured in New York Times Front Page Story on Abortion Rights Ballot Measures as Campaigns Enter Home Stretch

WASHINGTON, DC — In a New York Times story that dominated the newspaper’s homepage last night, Fairness Project Executive Director Kelly Hall was prominently featured as an expert on the ongoing successes of abortion rights ballot measures this cycle and on the abortion rights movement’s broader prospects for electoral victories across the country in November.

After the fall of Roe v Wade, the Fairness Project quickly became the national leader in restoring and protecting abortion access through ballot measures. Already, the organization has helped to secure or restore reproductive rights in Michigan, Vermont, and Ohio. In this cycle, the group has emerged as one of the largest backers of abortion ballot measures nationwide, committing $30M to critical ballot campaigns in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska.

Hall spoke to The Times on the bipartisan support for abortion ballot measures in the battleground states, and the strong possibility of the group and its partners running the table come November, significant opposition notwithstanding.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:

As Election Day Nears, Democrats Test Just How Powerful Abortion Really Is

“This is our first presidential year since the fall of Roe. It means that voters are turning out for a lot of other reasons beside the ballot measure,” said Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, which supports abortion rights ballot measures in red and purple states. “They may be making their partisan choices on immigration, on the economy, on infrastructure, on jobs.”

Some of the ballot initiatives themselves are also facing steeper challenges this year.

Ms. Hall sees a path to victory in all five states where her group is working — Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana and Nebraska — but noted that the measures in Florida and Nebraska face significant opposition.

Since 2022 and the overturn of Roe, 22 GOP-led state legislatures have enacted severe abortion restrictions or outright bans. To counteract these draconian measures, the Fairness Project has worked with state-level partners on the ground to restore and protect reproductive rights with citizen-initiated ballot measures. Thus far, abortion rights have been undefeated at the ballot box, winning in seven states in total.

Having already carried more than 30 progressive ballot measures to victory, the overwhelming majority of which were in conservative and right-leaning states, the Fairness Project is now widely considered the nation’s ballot measure leader. Thanks to its unique strategy in reaching Republican, independent, and undecided voters, it is poised to continue its electoral success in the final days of the 2024 campaign.