High-profile attorney general races pit abortion against crime

MINNEAPOLIS - To hear Keith Ellison tell it, his bid for a second term as Minnesota attorney general is likely to be decided by one major issue: abortion.

In a message echoed by other Democratic attorney general candidates around the country, Ellison frequently offers a “stark” warning of what could happen if his Republican opponent wins this week. “My opponent will absolutely take your right to a safe, legal abortion away,” Ellison said at a recent debate. “I will do everything to protect it.”

Ellison’s opponent Jim Schultz paints a very different picture on the campaign trail. Like other Republican attorney general hopefuls, Schultz has focused on public safety, describing Ellison’s policies as “fundamentally reckless and extreme” in a region still reeling from the police killing of George Floyd more than two years ago.

“It is immoral to embrace policies that have led to the extraordinary violent crime in our communities,” Schultz said at a debate.

These dueling themes have defined contentious attorneys general races around the country this election cycle, with particularly competitive races in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Texas.

While elections for attorneys general have traditionally been overshadowed by other races on the ballot, the politics of abortion and the growing influence of state attorneys general - who hold the ability to enforce, block or sue over policies that have national implications - have drawn more attention to races in the midterms. Many attorney general candidates have raised record-breaking sums, and outside groups have funneled significant money into the races.

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“There was a time when these races only got attention because it was an up-and-comer who might be running for governor sometime down the road,” said Paul Nolette, a Marquette University political scientist who studies the politics and polices of state attorneys general. But attorneys general, Nolette said, have increasingly “realized their own powers and been a lot more prominent,” delving into issues like the environment, immigration, health care and guns.

“Just about every hot-button issue you can imagine, and that’s given them an opportunity to collectively get more prominence,” Nolette said. “They are no longer simply another down ticket race.”

Michigan: A Democratic incumbent vs. an election denier

In Michigan, Dana Nessel, the incumbent attorney general and a Democrat, is facing a challenge from Matthew DePerno, a Republican lawyer who is currently under state investigation for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state.

While issues of voting and democracy were center stage in the race, abortion was a major issue. DePerno said he would uphold the state’s contested 1931 law, which would allow abortion providers to be charged with felony manslaughter for performing abortions. Nessel opposes and said she will not enforce the law, which was slapped with an injunction last month.

Echoing other GOP candidates, DePerno, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump, also seized on issues including public safety. “Dana has sat on the sidelines as crime has skyrocketed in this state, and as your next attorney general, I will fight to clean up this state,” DePerno said at September rally with Trump.

Georgia: Abortion takes center stage

In Georgia, Attorney General Chris Carr (R) clashed with his opponent, Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, over the state’s law banning abortion. Jordan and other abortion rights advocates said the statute includes language that could allow the state to investigate and criminally charge women who seek to have abortions or suffer a miscarriage. Carr has said he does not believe the statute would allow criminal prosecutions of pregnant women, but said at a recent debate that “it would be up to the district attorneys to make that determination.”

At a recent debate, Carr touted his efforts on public safety and accused Jordan of ignoring rising crime in her Atlanta-area district. Jordan pushed back on Carr’s claim, noting crime had risen across the entire state “on the attorney general’s watch.”

Wisconsin: Incumbent zeroes in on abortion

Abortion and crime were also big issues in Wisconsin’s attorney general race, where Democratic incumbent Josh Kaul has filed a lawsuit to overturn the state’s abortion ban.

His Republican challenger Eric Toney said he believed prosecutors should be able to investigate and enforce the abortion ban in other parts of the state should local district attorneys in other regions decline to press charges. Toney, the district attorney of Fond du Lac County, later tried to walk back that position.

Toney accused Kaul of being soft on crime; Kaul said Toney’s focus on prosecuting violations of the abortion ban would ultimately take time and resources away from “serious crimes” like sexual assaults and homicides. “Our AG needs to have public safety as his top priority not a far-right radical agenda,” Kaul said in a debate.

Nevada: ‘Make crime illegal again’

In Nevada, incumbent Aaron Ford (D) was locked in a tight race against Republican Sigal Chattah, who has campaigned on a slogan of “Make Crime Illegal Again.” Chattah, an attorney involved in lawsuits over the state’s coronavirus restrictions, has come under fire for a comment she made about the incumbent telling a friend in a text message that Ford, who is Black, “should be hanging from a [expletive] crane.”

Chattah, who was born in Israel, defended statement as a flippant remark that she had been casually using since her childhood. “When I say to my friends, ‘I’m going to hang you from a crane,’ I don’t literally mean I’m going to hang you from a crane,” Chattah told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Ford seized on Chattah’s views on abortion, which is legal in Nevada the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Though Chattah is against abortion, she has said she would defend the current law. But Ford pointed to previous comments she has made on the issue, including a May blog post where she said she supports a law like the one passed in Texas which prohibits abortion after detection of a fetal heartbeat.

“Attorneys general like me in purple states like Nevada have become one of the last lines of defense in protecting abortion access,” Ford told the Reno Gazette Journal. “An antiabortion attorney general could severely limit the statute’s scope.”

Arizona: A Trump endorsed Republican candidate

In Arizona, Kris Mayes, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, sought to make abortion a major issue in the closing days of the race, telling voters she will not prosecute medical providers or women under a 1901 state law that bans nearly all abortions in the state.

Abe Hamadeh, a former Maricopa County prosecutor who was endorsed by Trump, instead focused on rising crime and election fraud, claiming without evidence that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and that a “day of reckoning is coming.”

Texas: An incumbent who tried to overturn the 2020 results

Election issues also played out in Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) led an effort to overturn the 2020 election results in four states - a push that failed but has also been seized upon by conservatives who increasingly see state attorneys general offices as the front lines to national political fights.

Paxton was in a tight race with Rochelle Garza, a former ACLU attorney from the Rio Grande Valley. She made democracy and abortion rights the center of her campaign to defeat Paxton, who faces a litany of legal issues including a 2015 indictment for securities fraud and a federal investigation into claims from former employees that he abused his powers to help a wealthy donor.

Minnesota: A back and forth on crime and abortion

In Minnesota, the matchup between Ellison and Schultz was one of the most unpredictable races on the ballot, attracting millions of dollars in outside spending on television ads and get-out-the-vote efforts. If Schultz wins, he would be the first Republican to be elected Minnesota attorney general since 1971.

The race’s closing days have been dominated by a back and forth on crime and abortion - with Schultz accusing Ellison of trying to use abortion to distract what he has described as his the incumbent’s “failure” to keep Minnesota families safe. He has touted endorsements from the state’s largest police union and spent the final weekend of the campaign rallying with police officers at what his campaign called a “Defend the Police rally.”

“The race for attorney general comes down to one question: Do you trust Keith Ellison to keep you and your family safe?” Schultz says in a campaign ad. “The answer is no. Keith Ellison is extreme. He has let violence spread like cancer.”

Ellison has pointed out that, under Minnesota law, local district attorneys, not the attorney general, primarily handles criminal prosecutions, including those for violent crime. He said that when his office was asked to take on a case by local prosecutors, they had taken the case and “never lost.”

Ellison, 59, a longtime lawmaker who spent 12 years in Congress before becoming the first Black man elected statewide in Minnesota, has criticized his opponent’s lack of legislative and professional experience - including basic knowledge of what the attorney general’s office does. “He has never tried a case or stepped in a courtroom in his life,” Ellison said.

While Schultz has said he wants the attorney general’s office to be “apolitical” and would not focus on abortion, Ellison has pointed out that Schulz previously served on the board of an antiabortion group. He has mocked his opponent’s pledge that he wouldn’t make abortion the focus of his time in office, likening it to the pledges made by conservative Supreme Court justices who later ruled to invalidate the constitutional right to abortion.

“We’ve heard this before,” Ellison said. “And now Roe is gone”