Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the GOP wouldn’t be able to ignore abortion after the reversal of Roe v. Wade became a major issue in the midterm elections.
The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization over the summer competed with inflation as one of the top issues in the midterm elections, helping to galvanize Democratic turnout and limit Republican gains in what had previously been expected to be a “red wave.”
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“The ostrich message doesn’t work,” McDaniel told WABC’s John Catsimatidis in an interview Sunday morning. “We have to push our consulting class to not ignore issues … and push back on the Democrats who are extreme on this issue.”
After Roe was reversed by the conservative Supreme Court, which included three justices who were nominated by former President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate under the leadership of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a number of red states enacted strict abortion bans.
Democrats from President Joe Biden all the way down to the local level campaigned heavily in favor of Roe and against Dobbs, while it was perceived that Republican candidates were advised to minimize abortion discussion in favor of a focus on inflation and the economy.
“We can’t afford to say, ‘We’re not going to talk about this issue.’ We have to become conversant,” McDaniel said. “The Democrats are going to continue to use this issue.”
The top RNC official stated the need to “push back on the Democrats who are extreme on this issue” by highlighting abortion stances that are to the left of public opinion.
“We don’t believe in gender-selected abortions. We don’t believe the baby should be aborted on its due date,” she said. “We should be able to talk about being pro-life in a way that’s humanitarian and also talk about building consensus.”
Democrats still lost the House and probably don’t have the votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster of sweeping abortion rights legislation they describe as codifying Roe. Biden had promised to sign such legislation on the 50th anniversary of Roe later this month if voters gave Democrats the votes to pass it.
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Abortion will once again be a major topic of the 2024 presidential election. Trump has already announced his run for president and Biden is expected to follow suit later this year. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed into law a state-level abortion ban that would have been overturned by federal courts prior to Dobbs.
“We know that the Democrats are going to continue to push on this issue heading into 2024,” McDaniel said.
