{"id":1916956,"date":"2023-04-20T02:25:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T06:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-pro-life-gop-a-winning-2024-strategy-survey-data-challenges-democrat-and-media-assumptions\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T02:31:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T06:31:30","slug":"in-depth-pro-life-gop-a-winning-2024-strategy-survey-data-challenges-democrat-and-media-assumptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-pro-life-gop-a-winning-2024-strategy-survey-data-challenges-democrat-and-media-assumptions\/","title":{"rendered":"IN-DEPTH: Pro-Life GOP a Winning 2024 Strategy? Survey Data Challenges Democrat and Media Assumptions"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-depth-pro-life-gop-a-winning-2024-strategy-survey-data-challenges-democrat-and-media-assumptions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916956&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0419\/b737283c-c3ff-461b-b806-3f6e5f9e4c82\/audio.mp3?length=7846317&#038;duration=654\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Abortion advocates were ecstatic April 4 when far-left Judge Janet Protasiewicz decisively defeated conservative Daniel Kelly in an off-year election that for the first time in 15 years assured that Wisconsin\u2019s highest court will oppose any limits on the procedure that has killed more than <a href=\"https:\/\/nrlc.org\/uploads\/factsheets\/FS01AbortionintheUS.pdf\">63 million<\/a> babies since the 1973 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1971\/70-18\">Roe v Wade<\/a> decision.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Roe decision was overturned June 24, 2022, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/21pdf\/19-1392_6j37.pdf\">Dobbs v Jackson<\/a>, which federalized the abortion issue by restoring to state legislatures the authority to decide within their respective jurisdictions how many restrictions, if any, to place on the procedure.<\/p>\n<p>Protasiewicz\u2019s massive 11-point win sparked a Politico headline <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/04\/08\/republican-party-abortion-trap-00091088\">proclaiming<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cAbortion was a 50\/50 Issue. Now It\u2019s Republican Quicksand.\u201d Even the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/chicago-mayor-wisconsin-supreme-court-election-paul-vallas-brandon-johnson-janet-protasiewicz-dan-kelly-3673d166?mod=Searchresults_pos1&#038;page=1\">described<\/a> the Wisconsin result as a \u201cfive-alarm warning for the GOP about 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And an April 15, 2023, Associated Press story <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegouniontribune.com\/news\/nation-world\/story\/2023-04-14\/abortion-bans-raise-fears-inside-gop-about-backlash-in-2024\">reported<\/a> that \u201callies for leading presidential candidates concede that their hardline anti-abortion policies may be popular with the conservatives who decide primary elections, but they could ultimately alienate the broader set of voters they need to win the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even before the Wisconsin votes were counted, however, mainstream media outlets were sounding such warnings, as in a Feb. 1, 2023, AP <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/abortion-politics-south-carolina-state-government-us-republican-party-2022-midterm-elections-e12dcf419bc5272063a847436f9a237c\">news report<\/a> that while GOP voters strongly back pro-life candidates, the stance \u201ccould create problems for the party\u2019s eventual nominee in the general election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And during the 2022 campaign, mainstream media regularly framed the issue as moderate Democrats protecting abortion access versus radical Republicans who seek to ban all abortions regardless of the circumstances in any particular pregnancy, as seen in a\u00a0Sept. 13, 2022, New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/13\/us\/politics\/lindsey-graham-abortion.html#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%94%20Senator%20Lindsey%20Graham%20of,have%20become%20a%20potent%20issue.\">news story<\/a> on a proposed national law limiting abortion access to the first 15 weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), according to The New York Times, illustrates that voters must choose between \u201csupporting a Democratic majority that wants to preserve abortion access and handing control of Congress to Republicans who are seeking to ban the procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5172868\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/04\/05\/id5172868-GettyImages-1474829284-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Judge Janet Protasiewicz onstage during the live taping of \u201cPod Save America,\u201d hosted by WisDems at the Barrymore Theater in Madison, Wis., on March 18, 2023. (Jeff Schear\/Getty Images for WisDems)<\/figure>\n<p>Not long after the votes were counted in 2022, Democratic campaign strategist and former EMILY\u2019S List President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.precisionstrategies.com\/team\/stephanie-schriock\/\">Stephanie Schriock<\/a>\u00a0observed to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/12\/19\/dobbs-2022-election-abortion-00074426\">Politico<\/a> that\u00a0\u201cabortion access is a core value that hits you in your gut. It is going to be a huge part of every election going forward until we get this right back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There were other indicators before the Wisconsin contest that abortion advocates claimed put pro-life Republicans in jeopardy, thanks to the Dobbs decision. Since Dobbs, 18 states have enacted a range of restrictions, including Florida\u2019s heartbeat law that bans abortion after the sixth week and the similar Texas abortion \u201ctrigger law\u201d adopted in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Interviews by The Epoch Times with campaign strategists, advocates and analysts, however, suggest the conventional political wisdom expressed in the Mainstream Media\u2014Republican candidates must avoid taking strong pro-life stances in order to win 2024 elections\u2014misses the mark.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Cahaly, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrafalgargroup.org\/robert-cahaly\/\">Trafalgar Group<\/a>\u00a0senior strategist, said Republicans should emphasize the contrast between themselves favoring a few reasonable exceptions on abortion such as the health of the mother and rape or incest, versus Democrats who want no limits at all right up to the moment of birth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Republicans talk about the contrast, that they are for some limitations, whether it\u2019s a heartbeat bill, a 15 weeks bill, whatever it is, they are for some restrictions, whereas the official position of the Democrats is they seek abortion-on-demand, all nine months, up to and including partial-birth abortion. When that contrast is made, it is not going to hurt Republicans,\u201d the Atlanta-based Cahaly said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Republicans stay in that range, heartbeat to 15 weeks, with those exceptions, then they will have 70 percent of the American public with them,\u201d Cahaly said.\u00a0 \u201cIt is absolutely amazing, it depends on where you draw the line. You have a working majority of the American public if you just say legal in the first trimester or until a heartbeat is detected, with those exceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans are at a big disadvantage, Cahaly continued, \u201cwhen they let the other side paint them as being more extreme. The problem is they get looped into this thing about wanting to make all abortion illegal and letting the other side define the terms when the other side is saying \u2018hey, they want to make it all illegal.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Democrats Outspent GOP on Abortion<\/h2>\n<p>Democrats spent far more money defining Republicans as abortion extremists during the 2022 midterm elections than GOP aspirants did in projecting the more accurate image, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frc.org\/\">Family Research Council<\/a> (FRC) President Tony Perkins told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at the data, in the 2022 election, for instance, Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonstand.com\/commentary\/florida-enacts-heartbeat-protection-act-reaffirming-life-issues-popular-appeal\">spent $358 million<\/a> promoting their abortion positions versus Republicans who spent $37 million,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cEven if you go to Wisconsin in the recent Supreme Court election, the liberal, about a third of her ads were focused on abortion, compared to for the \u2018conservative,\u2019 where it was 1 percent of his ads covered abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line, Perkins said, is \u201cyou don\u2019t win a debate with your mouth shut.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perkins agreed that \u201chow you talk about this\u201d is key for Republicans in 2024 and thereafter. \u201cThey\u2019ve gotten off-track by allowing the Democrats to talk about banning abortion. Who\u2019s talking about banning abortion? We\u2019re talking about protecting human life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Perkins said Family Research Council\u2019s polling points to \u201cabout a 12-point swing\u201d in the GOP\u2019s favor when Republicans talk about protecting human life versus being defined as being for banning all abortions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s always been about protecting the unborn children and their mothers. It\u2019s not about chemical abortions, or banning abortions, it\u2019s about protecting unborn children. That\u2019s always been our mission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Perkins pointed out that 11 governors in competitive races in 2022 who had taken strongly pro-life positions, like the heartbeat bills, were victorious. \u201cIf you talk about it from a point of conviction, you win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>E.V. Osment, <a href=\"https:\/\/sbaprolife.org\/\">Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America<\/a>\u00a0vice president, agreed, saying \u201cthere was a thorough line and lesson to be learned with the 2022 midterms and the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. When candidates don\u2019t define their stance on abortion, they lose. Plain and simple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the 2022 midterms,\u00a0governors who signed ambitious pro-life legislation into law and never flinched politically, despite running in competitive states, came out on top. Even up against Democrat darlings who were very vocal on abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4802173\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/10\/17\/Georgia-debate-1-1200x675.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> (Left) Republican gubernatorial candidate Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during his primary night election party at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta on May 24, 2022. (Joe Raedle\/Getty Im<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abortion advocates were ecstatic April 4 when far-left Judge Janet Protasiewicz decisively defeated conservative Daniel Kelly in an off-year election that for the first time in 15 years assured that Wisconsin\u2019s highest court will oppose any limits on the procedure that has killed more than 63 million babies since the 1973 Roe v Wade decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":1916957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[4506,24717,5533,6441,4912,6203,24405,4188,8347,4158,12168,5902],"class_list":["post-1916956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-4506","tag-assumptions","tag-challenges","tag-data","tag-democrat","tag-gop","tag-in-depth","tag-media","tag-pro-life","tag-strategy","tag-survey","tag-winning"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}