And it was not at all close.

Since Kansas' Supreme Court actually ruled in 2019 that the state's constitution protects abortion rights, the GOP put a referendum on the ballot to try and get around it. I think the idea is that they figured turnout would be low about liberals in a primary election and notching a victory would send a false yet campaignable signal of some kind of national 'mandate' claiming that the people do in fact want an abortion ban. But, well, it didn't happen that way and Kansas voted to retain the protections for abortion rights in convincing fashion, considered something of an upset in such a deep red shithole. state. shithole.

You might be expecting me to make some comments about how surprising this is, but while I'm a little surprised at the margin (appears to be 20 points or so) I'm not super surprised at the result. It's like I've been saying the whole time - even red state asshats aren't generally against abortion, and most of the anti-abortion rhetoric you see is just rape-culture trolling. When it comes down to it, conservative men still don't want to be responsible for their actions, and occasionally, conservative women are capable of recognizing fractions of their own personhood.

Some will say this is a big canary in the mine for the GOP. I wouldn't go that far just yet. After all, it's not like they intend to win their elections via the democratic process anyway.

But all the same, in an age when the news cycle is unrelenting horror at all times, go ahead and enjoy this one for now.