This helps Whitmer and Evers meaningfully given the total bans hanging in the balance there. Probably helps Shapiro in PA, too, even though a ban isn't really in the cards there. IDK if it helps or hurts Kelly. The Kansas moderates could either stay angry at R's or alternatively feel safer voting straight ticket R in the fall knowing that state level abortion rights are now safe.
Bottom line, it looks like there are more soft pro-choice Trump voters than we thought.
It's honestly not all that surprising to me. Part of the genius of Trump was separating social conservatism from religion. This is kind of hard to explain, but think about people like Rick Santorum. In many ways, they set the tone for the modern GOP in terms of focus on the culture war, but they were and are pretty astoundingly unpopular; most Americans think it's weird to be that religious, even if they could be persuaded to agree with some of his culture war positions for different reasons like racial resentment. Trump successfully ditched the hyper-religiousness, leaving mostly just the bits that were popular.
I'd actually contend that the idea that Trump "broke" from the religious right is a bit overplayed. Trump was CONSTANTLY pandering to and elevating the hyper religious conservatives. He just successfully dissociated himself from that kind of religious image when catering to his less piously motivated supporters.
But the hyper religious faction is absolutely still a powerful force in Republican politics, and the increasing influence of Christian nationalist views permeating throughout the far right flank of the party is blending the "footsoliders for Jesus" mentality of the old school evangelicals with the more nebulous grievances of the authoritarian cultural reactionaries. Expect a lot of portrayals of the GOP as a band of pseudo-theocratic whack jobs to make a return in the popular discourse over the coming years.
