California abortion rights advocate sweats Biden drag on House races

SACRAMENTO, California — The leader of Planned Parenthood California warned Friday that President Joe Biden was dragging down Democrats in critical House districts in her state and could cost them the chamber. She is promoting Vice President Kamala Harris as the more effective standard-bearer at the top of the ticket.

Jodi Hicks, the group’s statewide president and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, pointed to polling she’s reviewed to express concern about the president’s underperformance in battlegrounds that are critical for Democrats’ efforts to retake the House.

Those same polls — including some expected to be made public soon — show Harris running marginally better than Biden in the swing districts but driving higher turnout from young people and independents, key voting blocs. Hicks did not explicitly call for Biden to exit the race, and nor did she formally endorse Harris as the next presidential nominee.

The warnings come as a growing number of elected leaders send up flares about a total wipeout in November that would give former President Donald Trump control over every branch of government in Washington, imperil efforts to restore abortion access after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and potentially allow Republicans to pass a national ban on abortion.

Planned Parenthood California, through an independent campaign arm, is running a multimillion-dollar effort focused on several competitive House races across Southern California and in the state’s Central Valley.

Hicks, an ally of the vice president and a major player in the capital city of Sacramento, called the Republican ticket of Trump and JD Vance “dangerously extreme.” That pairing adds to the critical nature of Democrats’ efforts to take back the House, she said.

“The voters we know who trust Planned Parenthood on elections are the same voters who, based on the recent polling, would turn out in favor of a different Democratic nominee, including Vice President Harris,” Hicks said.

“As we talk to voters in the competitive House races here, there is no question in my mind that a nominee at the top of the ticket who unapologetically supports reproductive freedom and abortion will bolster turnout and votes for the Democratic candidates in these critical House seats, closing the margins,” she said.

Hicks said Harris’ California bona fides would make her impact down-ballot “even greater.”