CV NEWS FEED // House Republican leadership will stress the party’s pro-life platform in the quest to expand its razor-thin majority in the chamber this November.
The Wall Street Journal’s Natalie Andrews reported Wednesday that a “memo prepared by House Republicans’ campaign arm … says Republicans have a ‘brand problem, not a policy problem’” when it comes to the issue of abortion.
Per Andrews, the memo noted that the party’s past “reluctance to discuss [abortion] left it to Democrats to define where the GOP stood.”
Andrews wrote that the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) new guidelines explained that while “[m]any voters view the party’s hopefuls as opposing abortion under any circumstances … there are actually a variety of positions held by candidates, particularly in swing districts.”
The memo also urged Republicans running for Congress to “confidently articulate” where they stand on the issue, noting that “being unwilling to stake out a clear position with voters is the worst possible solution.”
In addition, Andrews indicated that the document urged House Republicans to specifically lean into the empathetic nature of the pro-life argument, “discuss ‘common sense’ solutions and push back on” Democratic Party extremism regarding abortion.
According to the reporter, NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson, R-NC, “plans to share the guidance with his colleagues on Wednesday night at one of the kickoff events for the party’s three-day retreat in West Virginia.”
There, Hudson will “back his argument up with a poll conducted in more than 60 competitive House districts,” Andrews continued:
The polls found that about one-third of people surveyed associated Republicans with wanting to outlaw all abortions, while a similar number showed respondents saw Democrats favoring abortion for any reason at any time.
Republicans say that underneath the basic abortion-rights and antiabortion labels, voters generally back some restrictions on abortion, putting them more in line with the GOP than Democrats.
>> POLL: MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SUPPORT LIMITS ON ABORTION <<
With Rep. Ken Buck’s, R-CO, announcement Tuesday that he will resign from office next week, the House Republican majority is expected to be reduced to 218-213 – one of the smallest House majorities in American history.
Furthermore, the NRCC is notably coming off an especially disappointing 2022 midterm election.
Before election night, there were widespread predictions of a “red wave” resulting in the Republican Party gaining 20 or even 30 House seats.
Multiple upset wins by Democratic candidates, however, led to House Republicans significantly underperforming. The “red wave” never materialized and the party instead barely scraped their way to a House majority with a modest nine-seat pickup.
Some observers blamed the outcome on increased enthusiasm among pro-abortion voters in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision months earlier.
The narrative that GOP support for pro-life laws was to blame for the party’s midterm losses became common on the political left. However, it was also echoed by several Republicans, particularly observers from the party’s “moderate” wing.
>> POLL: 65% OF YOUNG VOTERS SUPPORT LIMITING ABORTION <<
At the time, Republican pollster Wes Anderson argued that it was not the Republicans’ pro-life messaging that caused electoral defeats so much as their lack of coherent messaging on abortion.
“I can say with empirical facts that we ceded almost all the ground on abortion to the Democrats,” Anderson told National Review just over one month after the midterms. “We did not engage in the fight.”
The pollster added that both on the abortion issue and in general, his party offered “no plan, no agenda, no hint of what they will do” in 2022.
On November 11, 2022, CatholicVote President Brian Burch similarly encouraged Republicans to be more forthright on abortion and other social issues.
“There are far too many Republicans who don’t understand the fight we are in,” Burch emphasized. “They really don’t seem to understand what Nancy Pelosi and AOC want to do to our country. And if they do, they don’t believe telling the public the truth is ‘good politics.’”
“They still think it’s 1980,” Burch argued. “If they sit back and wait for Americans to grow more frustrated, voters will hand them the keys to power. Right? Wrong.”
He continued:
Back in 2004, President Bush used the marriage issue to increase turnout. That’s exactly what President Biden did with the issue of abortion in 2022. And you can count on Democrats to double down on this strategy in 2024. Big time.
“Republicans can’t run away from [abortion] – or any of the culture issues – hoping they will go away,” Burch concluded.
