Our Memo to Pro-Life Candidates & Allies: Finish Strong
Earlier this week we sent a memo to pro-life allies both on and off the Hill to encourage them to keep drawing contrast with pro-abortion opponents in the home stretch of the 2022 cycle. The Washington Post’s Health 202 has the story today; read on for the full memo.
Efforts to pin down Democrat candidates on any abortion limits they support are paying off as the truth comes out:
Meanwhile, Cook Political shifting the Arizona Senate rating to “toss up” is no coincidence:
“Polling has shown the race between Sen. Mark Kelley (D) and Republican Blake Masters tightening up despite the fact that Democrats are outspending Republicans in the state by a 2-to-1 margin.”
The Memo:
13 days ahead of the election, the pro-life movement has reason for optimism as polling indicates a momentum shift in favor of pro-life GOP candidates.
This shift comes as Democrats have spent an astonishing $343 million (and growing) on abortion-focused TV ads this cycle – at least twice as much as on any other issue.
What’s changed? In the weeks that followed Dobbs, Democrats hammered the GOP on abortion and framed the issue in the most negative light possible – with the GOP lacking a cohesive response or counterattack.
In September, Sen. Lindsey Graham completely flipped the narrative when he introduced legislation prohibiting painful late-term abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions.
The 15-week late-term abortion limit put GOP candidates on firm footing and forced Democrats to go on the record in favor of late-term abortion and in opposition to any limits. This has been most visible in the debates, with high-profile candidates such as Marco Rubio, Blake Masters, J.D. Vance, Ted Budd, and Herschel Walker going on offense.
This aligned GOP candidates with public opinion and put Democrats far outside the mainstream: Harvard/Harris polling in the wake of Dobbs found that 72% of voters support limiting abortion no later than 15 weeks – including 75% of women, 70% of Independents, and 60% of rank-and-file Democrats – while only 10% support the Democrats’ position of abortion on demand until birth.
Now that we’re on much stronger footing, it’s time to finish strong and sprint across the finish line. SBA is flexing its political muscle in the final days, communicating this strong winning contrast with over 8 million key voters across the biggest 2022 battlegrounds, including visiting 4 million voters at their doorsteps. Our targeted approach reaches voters who make the difference in close midterm races: persuadable voters and low propensity pro-life voters.
Should we see success on Election Day, some will claim that the issue of abortion ultimately didn’t matter and it was economic/safety/education issues that carried the day. This is a wrong and lazy assessment. While other issues may ultimately prove more salient, abortion has undoubtedly played a role – one that shifted from being a drag on the GOP to an advantage in exposing the true extremism of Democrat candidates.
Life: A Winning Issue for Republicans
An op-ed by RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel packs a punch today at LifeNews:
Life has proven to be a winning issue for Republicans because Americans recognize that Democrats are the ones who are the real abortion extremists. Consider how radical Democrat politicians have become on abortion. The party that used to believe abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare” now thinks it should be taxpayer-funded and available on demand up until, and in some cases even after, the moment of birth. Gender-selective abortion? That’s also just fine with Democrats who want to control Congress and State Houses across the country. As Arizona Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters has pointed out, Democrats’ position of unlimited abortion is so extreme that it’s in line with communist regimes like China and North Korea.
Let’s be clear: allowing abortion up until birth is a cruel, extreme position that only 10% of Americans support. Even a majority of Democrat voters believe in limiting abortion at the point an unborn baby can feel pain. And yet Democrat candidates have embraced the most fringe positions possible and tried to pass them off as mainstream. From John Fetterman to Tim Ryan, Raphael Warnock, Mandela Barnes, Mark Kelly, Patty Murray and on down, time and again Democrats have been asked to name even a single abortion restriction they support. Each time they’ve refused.
Feedback From the Field
