RENO — Weeks before Election Day, more than 150 volunteers boarded early morning buses in Sacramento and headed east, through the towering mountains of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and across the Nevada border to become Californians. Convinced voters to approve a ballot measure. , I couldn’t vote for myself.
Once the group, made up mostly of women, arrived 130 miles away in eclectic Reno, “the world’s biggest little city,” they set out on foot to knock on doors in unfamiliar neighborhoods to secure abortion rights in Nevada. We asked for support for this initiative. Constitution.
It was all part of Democrat Maggie Krell’s bizarre campaign in the California state legislature. Facing a sleepy race against absentee Republican candidates for the Congressional seat representing Sacramento County, a former Planned Parenthood lawyer is seeking the same seat California voters approved two years ago. He channeled his energy and supporters into battleground states fighting for protection.
“This is the campaign I adopted,” Krell said over the chimes of slot machines at a makeshift volunteer headquarters inside a Reno casino last month, wearing a hot pink blazer and matching tennis shoes. .
RENO, Nev., Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024 — California House candidate Maggie Krell will focus on abortion rights in Nevada, not state issues, in Saturday’s sleepy Congressional race Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024 The focus of the election campaign was changed to focus on the target. (Scott Sadie) / For the times)
(Scott Sadie/For the Times)
Her risky plan worked. Not only is Krell, a former deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice, scheduled to be sworn into the state Legislature on Dec. 2, but Nevada’s abortion bill passed overwhelmingly.
In Krell’s view, California voters who believed her would understand why it’s important to protect their neighbors’ abortion rights. In 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal government’s right to abortion procedures, California voters passed a similar bill enshrining abortion access in the state constitution.
“I don’t think it was a novel strategy at all,” Krell said earlier this month. “I’m really glad I did it. I felt like it was the most important thing I could do with my time.”
Even Republican voters who helped Trump win the presidential election support abortion rights measures across the country, cementing the issue as one that cuts across political and cultural lines. His unique election strategy was farsighted.
Volunteers for California Congressional candidate Maggie Krell are preparing to campaign for abortion rights in Nevada.
(Scott Sadie/For the Times)
“Nevada voters reaffirmed an undeniable truth: Reproductive freedom is a winning issue that mobilizes voters in historic numbers,” said Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO said Mini Thimaraju in a post-election statement.
Mr. Krell, 46, has never held public office but is considering running for mayor of Sacramento this year and ran unsuccessfully for county district attorney 10 years ago.
She won more than 65% of the vote against young Republican newcomer Nikki Ellis in the 6th Congressional District, a safe Democratic district that includes downtown Sacramento, home to the California State Capitol. Ellis, who works for the state Chamber of Commerce, ran an unusually quiet campaign and did not report his fundraising or spending activities to the state.
Krell will succeed Kevin McCarty, a Democrat who served in the state Legislature for 10 years and is running for mayor of Sacramento.
As a former prosecutor, Mr. Krell worked at the California Department of Justice under Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who was then the state’s attorney general and was involved in the shutdown of Backpage, an advertising website that allegedly facilitated sex trafficking. Contributed.
Krell will participate in a special legislative session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom that will focus on ways to make California even more “Trump-resistant,” including abortion rights protections.
“The best defense we really have right now is the constitutional rights of the states,” Krell said. “Given what has happened nationally, there is definitely more work for us to do.”
Sacramento resident Tameiko Haim took a four-hour round trip on a Krell bus to knock on doors in Reno to find out how President Trump’s abortion policies are impacting maternal deaths, especially black women, who are at higher risk than the majority. It was also because I was worried about whether I would give it to them.
“It’s important for us not to rest on our laurels,” she says. “No one should be telling me what to do with my body, point blank, during my period.
The Californians who descended on Reno as tourists in late October, where gamblers and outdoor enthusiasts collide, frequently visit the deep-blue state, where regular elections are won without much fanfare and by strong Democratic majorities. It gave a chance to those who would never return home.
“I wanted to go to a place where I could knock on doors and make real change,” said Talia Smith of Lodi. She couldn’t vote because she doesn’t live in the Crell area, but she’s passionate about abortion rights. “This is a rare opportunity for us.”
The campaign also offered a glimmer of hope to some Nevadans who began campaigning weeks before the election, concerned that the outcome could jeopardize access to abortion across the country.
Although Trump was ultimately elected president again and has said he has no intention of imposing a nationwide abortion ban, activists argue that Trump’s record of reversals and the federal It points out the appointment of court judges and calls for vigilance. Two years ago, it was up to the states.
Maggie Krell, left, speaks with Patricia Lynch in Reno during a campaign in support of Bill 6.
(Scott Sadie/For the Times)
Patricia Lynch, 76, stands on the porch of her home in a quiet neighborhood near Reno High School and speaks in a choked voice about how she, too, spoke out for abortion rights decades ago. did.
She graduated from law school in 1973, the year the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was a constitutional right, striking down state restrictions. She met Sarah Wenton, a young lawyer from Texas who won the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that cemented abortion as a fundamental right.
In 1990, she helped persuade voters to pass a referendum protecting Nevada’s abortion laws, amid concerns that politicians at the time were pushing back on the right.
Dressed in flannel and jeans, the self-described “old feminist” held back tears as she put her hand on the shoulder of Krell, another female lawyer who is still fighting for reproductive rights more than 50 years later.
“I’m just looking back at all the fights right now. It’s been a long time,” Lynch said. “I can’t believe we’re back and still fighting.”
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