ORLANDO, Fla. — Abortion rights advocates want to take their fight back to the Florida Legislature armed with a new talking point: Their cause got about as much support from Florida voters as President-elect Donald Trump did.

But the appeal is unlikely to persuade a Republican supermajority whose members were mostly lockstep against Amendment 4.

That assessment — disheartening though it may be to advocates — rests firmly on an Election Day conundrum: The same electorate that voted 57% in favor of a ballot initiative to protect abortion access also returned to Tallahassee a Legislature nearly identical to the one that approved the six-week abortion ban the initiative sought to overturn.

“Most of the people who got elected voted for the bill that we passed,” said incoming state Senator Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, who served in the House before winning election to the Senate. “They supported it then. I don’t know why they wouldn’t support it now.”

Supporters of Amendment 4 insist Florida is on their side, with a vote falling just shy of the 60% needed to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Amendment 4 won about the same percentage of the vote as Trump, who fetched 56% in what the Florida GOP called a “historic” win and the biggest margin of victory for a president in Florida in nearly four decades. Because more people voted in Florida’s presidential race than on the abortion measure, Trump got slightly more votes — about 41,600 — than Amendment 4.

“The people have spoken and have sent a clear mandate to the Legislature: repeal Florida’s extreme ban,” said Lauren Brenzel, Yes on 4’s campaign director.

But incoming Florida Senate President Ben Albritton, a powerful figure in the Legislature, said hedoesn’t see a need to revisit the issue.

“I believe that every life was created by God, and every human being is valuable,” said Albritton, who represents a swath of Florida’s rural heartland from Polk to Lee counties. “My constituents in District 27 share that view. They expect me to bring their voices to Tallahassee.”

Two other GOP state lawmakers voiced similar sentiments, though some Trump voters backed the abortion rights amendment.

One of those was Jasmine Ortiz, a store manager who lives in Orange County. She voted for Trump but also for Amendment 4, convinced the government shouldn’t limit abortion access.

“It is our body. It is our right,” said Ortiz after voting at an east Orange precinct Tuesday.

But Florida’s red wave showed voters approve of the job their elected representatives are doing, Fine said. Republicans retained their supermajority in the state Legislature and fended off Democratic challengers who made abortion a top issue.

In 2023, the Florida House voted overwhelmingly 70-40 in favor of the six-week abortion ban. The Florida Senate approved it in a 26-13 vote. The ban includes exceptions for the life and health of the pregnant woman. It also allows exceptions for rape and incest up to 15 weeks, if a woman provides a police report or other documentation.

Amendment 4 would have protected abortion until viability, usually considered about 24 weeks of pregnancy, or when deemed necessary by a patient’s health care provider.

Florida was one of 10 states with abortion measures up for election on Tuesday. The ballot measures were an effort to protect abortion rights in states where, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, leaders had imposed strict restrictions on the procedure.

In Florida, incoming House Speaker Daniel Perez — another powerful figure in the Legislature — joined Albritton last year in voting for the six-week ban. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law and waged an all-out campaign to defeat Amendment 4, with his administration blitzing the airwaves with state-funded ad campaign targeting it.

A DeSantis spokesman and Perez did not return emails this week seeking comment about the abortion rights vote.

A majority of Floridians — 56% — supported another controversial ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana.

That issue, too, faces a tough path in the Legislature, despite the measure getting Trump’s endorsement.

Albritton, who plays a big role in setting the Legislature’s agenda, said he is opposed to recreational pot. Past legalization bills have failed to even get a hearing in the conservative Legislature.

DeSantis would likely veto attempts to change abortion laws or legalize marijuana — Amendment 3 on the ballot — even if they did somehow pass the Legislature, Fine said.

State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, said he doesn’t think Tuesday’s results on the abortion and pot amendments are an accurate reflection of public sentiment. Supporters massively outspent opponents on television advertising, and he thinks some voters didn’t get all the facts.

“I don’t think the Legislature is going to move on this,” said Ingoglia, a former chairman of the Florida GOP who also voted for the six-week ban. “It is going to be status quo. From the data I have seen, the polling I have seen, the more people knew about the intent and the language, the more they rejected it.”

Florida Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book vowed she would keep fighting, highlighting that Floridians of all political parties wanted abortion protections.

“The support we’ve built together will be the foundation of the work ahead,” she said. “We are the majority.”

Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group backing Amendment 4, raised more than $110 million to get it on the ballot and advertise it to voters — far outspending their opponents.

For some voters, abortion rights was their key issue on Election Day, although the economy and the state of democracy topped it in nationwide exit polling.

“I just don’t want the government to tell me what to do with my body, so I am here,” said Katie Coyle, a University of Central Florida student who supported Vice President Kamala Harris.

Although some Republicans supported Amendment 4, evangelicals and other anti-abortion voters remain a key part of the GOP’s coalition. About 70% of voters identifying as Republican opposed the abortion measure, according to exit polling.

Jason Tatum, a student at Full Sail University who supported Trump, said he voted against Amendment 4 because of his religious and moral views.

“From the moment the egg is fertilized, there’s already a life being developed in there, and so I just thought that was the right choice,” Tatum said.

Democratic efforts on abortion will be two-pronged when lawmakers return for their 60-day session in March, said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, who supported Amendment 4. They’ll push for a repeal of the six-week ban while also playing defense to try to stop any further restrictions on abortion.

“We’re not dealing with a moderate body of lawmakers,” she said. “These are very extreme individuals. The cards are absolutely stacked against us. The only thing we have is the will of the voters on our side.”

Abortion rights advocates are tired, but they aren’t giving up, she said.

“It is such a painful commentary on women’s rights in general,” Eskamani said. “A majority agree with us, but we still lose.”

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University of Central Florida student journalists Keily Alfonzo, Maci Castillo and Cassidy Mills contributed to this report.

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