In suburban Md., Dems bet abortion outrage can flip a state Senate seat

While door-knocking in this GOP-leaning suburb north of Annapolis, Republican Del. Sid Saab’s conversation with a Libertarian couple turned into the one he’d rather not have. Again. “Are you pro-life?” a mother of three asked him, her 9-month-old daughter on her hip. It was a question Maryland’s Democratic Senate Caucus has spent at least $500,000 — more than in any other statehouse race in Maryland — trying to ensure Saab answers. He replied with the truth: “Yes.” “Okay, that’s important to me,” she said, her husband nodding. At this house, he found agreement. But for all the attack ads painting his candidacy as a blockade to progress on abortion rights, he can’t help but explain why he thinks his antiabortion stance shouldn’t matter: there is little a Republican in a legislature with a Democratic supermajority can even do on the issue.