Vice President Kamala Harris is leading Democrats’ efforts to elevate abortion access as the defining issue of the mid-term cycle, hoping to regain her footing after personal efforts to thwart illegal immigration and bolster voting rights stumbled.

For Ms. Harris, the abortion issue offers what should be a safe foothold as her party eyes her as a fall-back option if President Biden does not run in 2024.

Ms. Harris on Tuesday sat next to President Biden at the second meeting of a task force forged to address the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and the national right to abortion. Yet the vice president spoke first, setting the tone as the host of the meeting.

“The Dobbs decision created a health care crisis in America,” Ms. Harris, seated at the center of a long table, told the task force. “We believe, and I certainly believe, that a woman should have the freedom to make decisions about her own body. The government should not be making those decisions for her.”

Ms. Harris singled out two swing states — Arizona and Wisconsin — for reimposing bans that stretch back to the 19th century in the wake of the court’s decision.

Mr. Biden said he ordered Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to take a look at ways to ensure access to contraception and information about birth control on college campuses, as some schools clamp down.

SEE ALSO: Pro-life activists to march Wednesday on Ohio statehouse

“Folks, what century are we in?” Mr. Biden said, before thanking Mr. Harris for her leadership on the task force.

Mr. Biden gave Ms. Harris a long to-do list during his first term, turning her into a perpetual czar of thorny problems. 

Yet GOP critics lambasted her for failing to visit the southern border despite being tasked with addressing the illegal immigration crisis, and Democrats made little progress on their legislative ideas to protect voting rights. 

Trips designed to bolster her foreign policy credentials haven’t gone smoothly, either. A recent tour of East Asia was marred by Ms. Harris accidentally touting the U.S. alliance “with the Republic of North Korea” during her visit to the demilitarized zone dividing the Korean Peninsula.

“She has just not caught fire. She has not latched onto an issue that allows her to show her best side,” said Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University.

Democrats are hoping abortion will be the issue that boosts Ms. Harris’s stock. She is serving as the first female vice president in U.S. history while over a dozen states impose strict restrictions on abortion, making her an obvious figure to take on the debate.

Ms. Harris is crisscrossing the country to discuss reproductive health and abortion access with state and local leaders. She will travel to Connecticut on Wednesday to discuss abortion access in New Britain with Rep. Jahana Hayes and Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

This weekend, she will travel to Austin, Texas, to meet with reproductive rights advocates ahead of a reception for Texas Democrats.

“She’s found her groove,” Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, told CNN last month. “She has really been able to help the White House communicate its message on choice, on freedom and on equality — and that matters in a close election.”

Forecasters say Republicans will likely retake the House in this year’s mid-terms, but not by as many seats as initially thought, and may struggle to recapture the evenly divided Senate, in which Ms. Harris serves as a tie-breaker for Democrats.

Democrats see the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling as a key rallying point before the November contests. They hope Democrats concerned about abortion restrictions in GOP-led states, or the prospect of a national ban, will eat into the “red wave” that was anticipated earlier this year.

“The Supreme Court opened up a political debate that many Republicans would just as soon avoid, but unfortunately for them, the extreme elements within their party keep on adding fuel to the fire. For the vice president not to be engaged makes no sense,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former spokesman for the late Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Democrats are seizing, in particular, on a plan by Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks, though some in the GOP have distanced themselves from the idea after saying the topic would be up to the states.

It’s a strategy that could appeal to women voters and young people who are vital to Democrats’ fortunes in any election year, though it’s not without risks.

A Monmouth University poll this week found economic issues are a bigger factor for midterm voters than concerns about abortion rights or democracy. Independents, in particular, are focused on rising prices even though Democrats are zeroing in on things like abortion access.

Only 31% of U.S. adults approved of President Biden’s handling of abortion, the pollsters said, indicating Ms. Harris has work to do.

The administration is prodding Congress to codify the broad right to abortion that was overturned by the Supreme Court about 100 days ago. In the meantime, the Biden administration is taking executive action where it can. 

The White House said Tuesday it is allocating $6 million in grant money for family planning and research and teenage pregnancy prevention in Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Ms. Harris’ focus on the issue can be seen as a personal reset for Ms. Harris, who was hounded by low approval ratings early in her tenure and faced reports about dissatisfaction among her staff and high-level departure from her office.

Ms. Harris’s 2020 presidential bid started with promise but quickly fizzled. Still, she is floated as a potential 2024 alternative if Mr. Biden decides not to run, given her position as the No. 2 in the administration.

“Kamala won’t be the last woman to be vice president — or president,” Mr. Biden told guests at a Jewish New Year event last week in the White House East Room.

Some analysts say she still needs to prove she is the heir apparent.

“Harris is in a situation that has been faced by other vice-presidents, which is visibility without real power. Perhaps had she been longer in the Senate she might have made friendships that she could draw on to give Biden a lift on close votes,” Mr. Baker said. 

Ms. Harris’s approval rating dove to around 30% in November 2021 and April of this year, according to averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight. Things have improved a bit recently, with her average close to 38%, though around half the country still disapproves of her performance.

“If Biden and Harris expect pro-abortion extremism to save them from their dismal job approval, they are mistaken,” said Mallory Carroll, the vice president of communications at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

She pointed to a Trafalgar Group poll that found majorities in every age group would prefer a federal bill that limits abortion after 15 weeks — with exceptions for rape and incest and allowing for state-level restrictions —  while a minority backs a Democratic plan that would allow abortion without limits.

“When Americans understand the reality of the Democratic Party’s radical agenda, they reject it,” Ms. Carroll said.

China’s government is seeking to silence former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for comments critical of the ruling Communist Party made during a new series of broadcasts that seek to speak directly to the Chinese people.

The first broadcast on September 14 focused on differentiating between the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) and China’s 1.4 billion people, a key China policy approach launched by Mr. Pompeo at the State Department during the Trump administration.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington responded to the broadcast by sending an angry letter to the Hudson Institute, the Washington think tank that is hosting the broadcasts at its new China Center. The Sept. 27 letter criticized Mr. Pompeo for making a “groundless accusation against the Communist Party of China.”

“Any attempts to cut off the blood ties between the CPC and the Chinese people are doomed to fail,” the letter, signed “the Chinese Embassy in the US,” stated.

Mr. Pompeo tweeted the letter Tuesday with the comment: “The CCP wants me to stop speaking the truth. Ain’t gonna happen.” The tweet included an emoji of a person placing a paper in a trash can.

The former secretary of state, who recently traveled to Taiwan, told The Washington Times he is undeterred by the criticism.

“The CCP seems highly peeved by the truth,” Mr. Pompeo said. “Seeking to silence me is at odds with its claims that, as a former secretary of state, I’m irrelevant.”

He added: “In any event, I intend to keep speaking to the American people about how the CCP has impacted their lives, and to the Chinese people about how they can have better lives too once their oppressor is confronted.”

Hudson President John Walter issued a statement on Twitter rejecting the Chinese criticism.

“The genocidal #CPP is the oppressor of the Chinese people & an enemy of free people around the globe,” he wrote in a tweet. “The Chinese people know this & the American people know it. … No one at Hudson is intimidated by this.”

Miles Yu, the director of the China Center who served as Mr. Pompeo’s chief China policymaker, said the former secretary of state has wanted for some time to speak directly to the Chinese people. The Hudson broadcasts were planned for when Mr. Pompeo was still in office, “but we ran out of time,” Mr. Yu said.

“As a private citizen, this is his passion — to talk to the Chinese people directly and this is something the CCP fears because they falsely claim they represent the people of China,” Mr. Yu said, adding, “We will continue this series because truth will never expire.”

Mr. Pompeo has been a major target of Chinese attacks for his criticisms of the government. As secretary of state from 2018 to 2021, the one-time Republican congressman from Kansas initiated a significant shift in U.S. policy toward China, pushing tougher policies on issues of human rights and aggressive maritime activities.

In January 2021, shortly before leaving office, he officially declared that Beijing’s repressive policies against minority Uyghurs in western China amounted to a “genocide.”

China has denied the charge and according to a recent State Department report, has used disinformation operations worldwide to obscure its treatment of the Uyghurs.

Mr. Pompeo, who headed the CIA under Mr. Trump before moving to the State Department, also shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston that U.S. officials said had been used as a major intelligence collection point.

During a visit to the Philippines in July 2020, Mr. Pompeo said Chinese claims to own some 90% of the South China Sea were “completely unlawful.”

The Chinese Embassy letter stated that the Communist Party, which has ruled China since 1949, was “founded for the people and nurtured by the people, and claimed that some 800 million people have climbed out of poverty under its rule. The statement is a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent claim that his anti-poverty campaign had drastically reduced poverty rates among China’s 1.4 billion people.

However, current Chinese Premier Li Keqiang appeared to contradict the president, noting that in 2020 some 600 million Chinese were still earning the equivalent of $140 a month — not enough to pay rent.

“The average per-capita annual income in China is [$4,193], but there are over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely [$140], not enough to rent a room in Chinese cities,” Mr. Li said during a Beijing press conference.

The think tank’s rejection of Chinese officials’ criticism is a marked departure from a similar, more successful effort by Beijing to cancel a Hudson speech by a Chinese dissident in 2018.

Four years ago, a Hudson program called the Kleptocracy Initiative, created to highlight global corruption, scheduled a speech by Chinese dissident billionaire Guo Wengui, a former insider who fled China and has begun publicizing what he said was corruption among senior CCP leaders. The speech was canceled hours before the program was to begin as a result of what a former Hudson associate said were direct threats from the Chinese Embassy.

The Chinese notified the institute in emails that if the dissident’s speech went forward, visits to China by Hudson scholars would be blocked.

A Hudson spokesman said at that time the reason for the cancellation was the result of poor planning.

RENO, Nev. — Nevada’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Joe Lombardo, sought in a debate on Sunday to distance himself from former President Donald Trump over his lies about the 2020 election, but said Trump’s policies were better than those under the Biden administration, which he blames for inflation and rising interest rates. 

“It’s an abysmal failure. In my opinion Trump moved the country forward,” Lombardo said. But when asked whether Trump was “a great president,” Lombardo hesitated, saying, “I wouldn’t say great, I think he was a sound president.”

Lombardo said he was bothered by Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, saying that he was “not shying away from that” and agreeing that Trump lying about election fraud undermined the confidence of the voters. 

Trump is scheduled to campaign for Lombardo next weekend, setting up a potentially awkward meeting. 

The debate with incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was a mostly cordial exchange animated by subjects that are defining midterm races across the country: abortion rights, the economy and inflation, education and crime, which by some measures is up in the Las Vegas area where Lombardo has spent his career in law enforcement and has served as sheriff since 2015.

A third of registered voters in Nevada are Democrats, while nonpartisan voters barely edge out Republicans, making the contest among the nation’s most closely watched. Nonpartisan registration has outpaced both major parties this year and Democratic registration has largely stalled, with some switching their registration to Republican.

ABORTION

Echoing efforts by Democrats nationwide, Sisolak sought to make abortion access a campaign centerpiece, saying voters “have a clear choice in this race.” It’s a tricky topic for Lombardo, who has touted since the Republican primary that he would govern through a “pro-life lens” but has flip-flopped on certain measures.

Sisolak is a staunch supporter of abortion rights and has worked to make Nevada a safe haven for the procedure as neighboring Utah, Arizona and Idaho have restricted access. He has attempted to paint Lombardo as an anti-abortion extremist. A big screen outside the debate said “Joe Lombardo wants to ban contraception.”

Lombardo will keep contraceptives “accessible,” he said on his website in a 106-word explanation for his abortion stance that during the primary race had three words: “Joe is pro-life.”

Lombardo told KRNV-TV that he would overturn Sisolak’s June executive order that protects out-of-state abortion patients and in-state providers. Days later, he told The Associated Press only that he would view it through a “pro-life lens” but did not cite specific action. In a letter posted on his website last week, he said that he would uphold the order. 

Earlier this month, Lombardo said he would oppose a national abortion ban proposed by South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham.

Lombardo specified Sunday that he supports laws that require parents to be notified if a minor is having an abortion and legislation to require a waiting period between consultation and abortion. He said he does not support mandatory ultrasounds. 

A state law allows abortions up to 24 weeks into pregnancy. Lombardo said “there’s nothing the governor can do” to change that law. 

Sisolak scoffed at a question about whether he supports abortions at 28, 30 or 32 weeks. He said it was a “volatile” question to ask, given that the vast majority of abortions occur before 21 weeks, and called it “political theater.” 

CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Sisolak has the final say on criminal justice bills that come out of Carson City. Lombardo implements those laws in Clark County.

Lombardo said crime decreased for six years there but has climbed in the last two years, which he blamed on a Democratic-controlled state government that has passed “soft-on-crime legislation,” including a law that raised the dollar amount for a theft to be considered a felony from $650 to $1,200 and increased the weight of drugs that qualify for felony trafficking. 

Debate moderator Jon Ralston, CEO of the Nevada Independent, noted that Lombardo’s sheriff’s department was neutral on the bill. Lombardo said his department had to compromise, “knowing that it was still bad legislation.”

Ralston noted that Sisolak once called Lombardo the “best sheriff in America.” But Sisolak said Lombardo’s policies have changed as he sought the governor’s office.

“People are not safer today than they were eight years ago,” when Lombardo became sheriff, he said. “I met with a roundtable of local businesses, who told me one of the main problems they have is burglary. They can’t get (Las Vegas police) to even respond to burglary because it’s so far down on their list.”

Lombardo said that was “absolutely false,” and that criminal justice reforms mean police have more burglaries to respond to. 

ECONOMY

The Democratic governor defended his decision to close nonessential businesses at the start of the pandemic. He said he remembered looking at the Las Vegas Strip and “knowing that if I signed this executive order I’m gonna shut down the Strip, (and) put 250,000 people out of work.”

“Those lives were more important to me,” said Sisolak, who is endorsed by the Nevada Chamber of Commerce. “The economy came back. Those lives we could never regain. There’s 11,051 empty seats at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner right now.”

Lombardo has criticized the longevity of school and business closures and Sisolak’s determinations about which businesses were essential, calling it “too draconian.”

“We didn’t have to be a beta agency or a beta state or a beta department. You can rely on what other people are doing in other states that were showing success,” he said. “I believe the governor just solely relied on what (California Gov.) Gavin Newsom advised him.”

EDUCATION

Lombardo and Sisolak both said they support raising teacher pay. Lombardo said he would back a raise tied to the Consumer Price Index of around 2-3%, but said the exact amount would be negotiated. Sisolak said he would increase starting teacher pay and negotiate raises “north of 3%.”

The sheriff said he would restore a provision in Nevada’s “Read by Grade 3” program that holds back third graders who don’t read at grade level, and supports an expansion of charter schools, which teachers’ unions oppose.

Lombardo, like other Republicans, strongly supports voucher programs that provide public money for students to attend private schools, and said parents should have options besides “failing schools.”

Nevada has long placed near the bottom of national education rankings. The Clark County School District, with 326,000 students, is the fifth in size nationally and has weathered staff shortages. Lombardo has indicated he would consider breaking up CCSD.

Sisolak said the state can’t afford to drain funding from the cash-strapped public school system, noting that private schools “don’t have to take the students that are more expensive to teach,” such as those with learning disabilities or English learners.