RNC Chair Says Republicans Should Be More Vocal About Wanting to Restrict Abortion, Despite Massive Losses for Trying to Restrict Abortion

The widely accepted, overwhelming takeaway from last week’s elections was that the American people want abortion rights, hence blistering losses for Republicans, who want to take those rights away. In Ohio, the right to an abortion was enshrined in the state’s constitution. In Kentucky, voters reelected pro-choice governor Andy Beshear. In Virginia, Democrats took control of the state legislature, preventing the GOP governor from limiting abortion moving forward, which he definitely planned to do. The results were very, very unambiguous.

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, however, looks at what happened last Tuesday and thinks the solution for her party going forward is to talk about restricting abortion more. McDaniel declared to NBC, incredibly: “I’m proud to be a pro-life party, but we can win on this message. The American people are where we are, and they want commonsense limitations. They want more access to adoption. We want to make sure that there’s pregnancy crisis centers. These are things we can win on.”

Obviously, Americans are not where Republicans are on abortion, and that was clear even before last week. A Pew Research Center poll conducted earlier this year found that more than 60% of Americans want abortion to be legal in all or most cases. As The New Republic notes:

And if that data weren’t enough, in every election since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Americans have voted to increase abortion rights. This is true even in otherwise red states such as Ohio, Kentucky, and Montana.

Candidates who campaign heavily on protecting abortion have pulled off amazing feats: Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer was overwhelmingly reelected in November 2022, while her Democratic Party flipped the state legislature for the first time in 40 years. In neighboring Wisconsin, pro-abortion state Supreme Court justice Janet Protasiewicz won her April 2023 election handily.

Of course, while McDaniel’s advice seems comically bad, should Republicans follow it and loudly proclaim about their views on abortion, it could help avert a disaster come 2024. So yeah, shout it from the rooftops!

Kevin McCarthy is considering taking his ball, going home