Several Republican candidates in swing state contests joined former President Donald J. Trump after he said abortion access should be left to the states, avoiding mention of a national ban and the party’s division on the issue disclosed.
The turnaround was particularly pronounced among several Republican candidates for the US Senate, which the Democrats control with a razor-thin majority of 51 to 49 seats.
Republicans would only have to flip one seat in the chamber if Mr. Trump prevailed in the November election, but they have watched losses pile up for the party’s candidates since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Roe v. Wade declared invalid. In this year’s midterm elections The widely predicted “red wave” failed to materialize for Republicans, who missed opportunities to flip the Senate in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona and dropped key gubernatorial races, including in Michigan.
“I agree with President Trump that the issue of abortion should be decided at the state level,” Mike Rogers, a former longtime House member from Michigan who supported Mr. Trump in that state’s open race for U.S. Senate, said in an explanation.
As a member of the House of Representatives in 2013, Mr. Rogers was one of 131 Republican co-sponsors of the Life at Conception Act, a fetal personhood law that did not pass.
Kari Lake, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in the battleground state of Arizona after her failed bid for governor in 2022, also joined Trump.
“I agree with President Trump: I do NOT support a federal abortion ban, policy should be left to the individual states,” she wrote on X on Monday.
In Ohio, Bernie Moreno, a wealthy former car dealer who won a closely contested Republican Senate primary last month with Trump’s endorsement, pushed for a similar goal.
“Bernie has always said it should be decided primarily at the state level,” Reagan McCarthy, communications director for Mr. Moreno’s campaign, said in an email. “He is happy with any path forward that ends elective late-term abortions with reasonable exceptions and saves as many babies as possible.”
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who is running for re-election in a race that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates as a “solid Republican seat,” also favored a state-by-state approach.
“We don’t have a national referendum system, so the way voters vote is the election in the states,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill on Monday. “I just see it as a voter problem. And to be clear: I am pro-life. I will advocate for pro-life laws. If I get the chance to vote in my state, I will vote for what I believe is the most pro-life position, with exceptions for rape, incest and maternal life.”
Robert Jimison contributed reporting from Washington. Direct current
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2024-04-09 16:20:48
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