Study Group with John Anzalone

"How will Abortion Rights Impact the 2024 Elections?" with EMILYs List President, Jessica Mackler

There is rarely an election cycle – or two in a row – where one issue has had the dominant impact on electoral politics that the overturning of Roe v. Wade has. The extreme views of GOP Senate candidates' abortion positions kept the U.S. Senate Democratic when midterms usually go against the party in control of the White House. Will reproductive rights have the same impact in the 2024 presidential and key congressional races? We will take a close look at what Trump has done to muddy the water on the issue (state rights) and how Harris will use Trump's own words to drive a wedge on the issue. We will also look at which states have an abortion referendum on the ballot and how that may help Democratic candidates. 

We will look at TV and digital ads by campaigns and advocacy groups like EMILYs List that drive single-issue communications.

GUEST: Jessica Mackler, President of EMILYs List, will join Resident Fellow John Anzalone in-person for the October 29 session.

Jessica Mackler is the president of EMILYs list. A veteran political strategist known for her political smarts and sheer grit, she has spent more than two decades in Democratic politics. 

Her career has been steeped from the beginning in the mission of EMILYs List, starting at the organization as an intern and then as a staer, spending two cycles traveling all over the country helping elect women to oce. 

Mackler spent nearly a decade working at all levels of campaigns, all over the country. She then served as President of American Bridge 21st Century, and ran high profile independent expenditure operations for the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). 

Mackler was critical to Democrats winning the House majority in 2018 with an historic pickup of 40 House seats. She served as the DCCC’s first female Independent Expenditure director and built the organization’s most diverse IE team in its history. In this role, Mackler led a team of 38 and directed nearly $90 million in paid media spending across 59 congressional districts. 

Mackler returned to EMILYs List in 2021 where she played a critical role in the organization’s electoral strategy in the 2022 cycle under then-President Laphonza Butler, and was later asked to serve as interim president when Butler was appointed to the U.S. Senate. 

Mackler is a native of Sonoma County, California, and a graduate of UC San Diego. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and two sons.

AUDIENCE: These conversations are open to members of the Harvard community. Please RSVP with a valid Harvard email address. 

OFF-THE-RECORD: In keeping with our long tradition at the IOP to ensure honest and candid discussions of politics, all IOP study groups are off-the-record.