The chairwoman of the Republican party has warned that candidates will need to address the abortion issue ‘head on’ in order to win back the presidency in 2024.
Ronna McDaniel said on Sunday that Democrats have turned the issue of abortion into a rallying cry following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last summer, while Republicans have tried to steer clear of the issue.
But if Republican presidential candidates instead challenge Democrats on their beliefs, the party may be able to win back swing voters, McDaniel said on FOX News Sunday.
Recent polling, however, suggests a majority of independent voters, and even a handful of Republican voters, support abortion in most — if not all — cases.
And her remarks just days after traditionally red states Nebraska and South Carolina passed measures prohibiting abortion bans.
Ronna McDaniel said on Sunday Republicans need to address the issue of abortion ‘head on’ in order to win back the presidency in 2024
Discussing the upcoming 2024 presidential election with FOX News Sunday host Shannon Bream, McDaniel acknowledged that Republicans fell short of winning back the Senate — and only gaining the slightest majority in the House — due to the abortion issue.
‘What I will say is the biggest takeaway we are taking is that independents did not break our way, which has to happen if we’re going to win in 2024, which usually that’s what causes the red wave,’ she said.
‘And abortion was a big issue in key states like Michigan and Pennsylvania,’ McDaniel continued. ‘And so the guidance we’re going to give our candidates is you have to address this head-on.’
She noted that the Democratic Party spent $360million campaigning on abortion rights in the midterm elections last year, ‘and many of our candidates across the board refused to talk about it, thinking, “Oh we can just talk about the economy and ignore this big issue,” and they can’t.’
Instead, McDaniel suggested Republican candidates put Democrats on the defensive by asking if they support late-term abortion, which some consider to be infanticide.
‘What abortion is a bad idea to Democrats? Nine months? Eight months? Seven months?’ she asked, rhetorically.
She then went on to ask whether people should be allowed to have an abortion ‘if it’s a girl’ or whether people who are against it for religious reasons would have to support ‘tax-funded abortions,’ saying ‘That’s where Joe Biden was years ago.
‘They can’t even articulate an abortion that’s a bad idea,’ McDaniel said of Democrats. ‘So I think put them on the defensive and articulate where you stand, and that’s going to be that critical message that we have to get out … before 2024.’
She also told FOX News Sunday host Shannon Bream that the Republican party needs to remain united
McDaniel also told Bream that it is important for presumed frontrunner Donald Trump and other candidates to participate in primary debates, and said that all candidates should pledge to back the eventual nominee.
She explained that unity is important for Republicans to win back the White House, as Biden and Democrats try to paint the party as fractured.
‘I think one of the other takeaways we took from the midterms in 2022 is that we just don’t need independents, we need every Republican,’ McDaniel said. ‘And we need to bring every Republican together.’
She said during the midterm elections some Republicans refused to vote for their party’s nominee ‘and that was a big factor of why we lost some key Senate races.’
And, McDaniel said, Biden was ‘right’ that ‘we cannot win if we’re not united.
‘If Republicans don’t vote for other Republicans, we’re not going to win,’ she said. ‘And we don’t just need all of the Republicans, we need independents too.’
Abortion rights activists are pictured in front of the Supreme Court ahead of the landmark Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last year
Anti-abortion activists also protested for an end to the legal right to abortion
But a poll from February conducted by University of North Florida found that 75 percent of the state’s residents opposed the six-week ban, including 61 percent of Republicans.
A whopping 64 percent of Americans also believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the newest data Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). Sixty-three percent disagreed with the decision to overturn Roe.
Sixty-eight percent of Independent voters said abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to PRRI, as did 90 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans.
And some 21 percent of independents said the abortion matter was a deal-breaker – they would only vote for a candidate who shared their views.
Meanwhile, 30 percent of respondents think abortion should be legal at all stages of pregnancy, 34 percent think it should be legal in most cases, 25 percent say it should be illegal in most cases and 9 percent say it should be illegal in all cases.
Just 9 percent of Americans believe abortion should be illegal in all cases and 25 percent believe it should be illegal in most cases.
In recent days, abortion bans in normally conservative Nebraska and South Carolina each fell a single vote short of passing their legislatures, amid debate on the issue by Republican state lawmakers.
Abortion will now remain legal in Nebraska through 20 weeks of pregnancy, and legal in South Carolina through 22 weeks.
Thirteen other states have bans in place on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. They are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
And four others states have bans throughout pregnancy, but are legally blocked from enforcing it by the courts.