It’s a winner. Huge.
You go boys and girls:
Republicans leading the party’s effort to defend the House in this fall’s elections are pushing GOP colleagues to openly discuss their positions on abortion, rather than try to sidestep the issue like many did in the previous campaign, arguing that doing so will be critical to winning competitive races.
A memo prepared by House Republicans’ campaign arm and viewed by The Wall Street Journal says Republicans have a “brand problem, not a policy problem,” as their reluctance to discuss the issue left it to Democrats to define where the GOP stood. Many voters view the party’s hopefuls as opposing abortion under any circumstances, when there are actually a variety of positions held by candidates, particularly in swing districts, the memo states.
The guidance tells candidates that they must “confidently articulate” their stance and that “being unwilling to stake out a clear position with voters is the worst possible solution.”
Abortion has weighed on the party’s success in recent years. Republicans won back the House in 2022 but by a narrower-than-expected margin, a far cry from the “red wave” they had hoped would sweep them to a big majority in the chamber. Lawmakers from both parties say the Supreme Court’s decision that year ending the right to an abortion revved up abortion-rights voters and helped Democrats defend seats.
The party is trying to figure out a better approach headed into the 2024 contests, when the White House, the Senate and the House are all seen as tossups.
The guidance, which will be presented to GOP colleagues by Rep. Richard Hudson (R., N.C.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, also recommended that members express empathy for women, discuss “common sense” solutions and push back on what it calls Democrats’ extremism on the issue. Hudson 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.
Hudson intends to back his argument up with a poll conducted in more than 60 competitive House districts by Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and former senior adviser to Donald Trump. 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.
Democrats counter that they are better aligned with voters. If Republicans “think people need to hear more about their unpopular antiabortion policies, go ahead. We’re confident voters will respond accordingly in November,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Viet Shelton.