GOP Senate candidates soften their abortion stances amid a post-Roe losing streak

Republican candidates in states that will determine control of the U.S. Senate next year have quietly shifted their stances on abortion rights in an attempt to combat Democrats’ success on the issue.

In key 2024 battleground states, some Republican Senate hopefuls have subtly begun to put more emphasis on situations in which abortion should be legal, while others have made clear that they oppose a federal ban on the procedure.

The shift in focus comes as Democrats have continued to win elections across the country by strongly emphasizing their support for abortion rights in the 18 months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Republican strategists have urged their candidates to oppose a national ban, while party leaders have simultaneously implored them to address the issue head-on.

Democrats say Republicans are trying to soften positions that may have been deeply unpopular with most voters.

“On the record and on video, Republican Senate candidates have already taken dangerous positions that would make abortion illegal without exceptions, and we will make sure voters see and hear them in their own words.” said Nora Keefe, spokeswoman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party’s Senate campaign arm.

These are the declared Republican candidates in five Senate battleground states who have noticeably changed the way they publicly discuss the issue in recent months.

Arizona: Lake Kari

Kari Lake at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on March 4.Alex Brandon / AP File

Lake, who could end up in a three-way general election against independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Democratic challenger Rubén Gallego, was one of the first and most prominent Republicans to change her position on the abortion issue.

During her unsuccessful run for governor of Arizona in 2022, Lake said she supported an 1864 law that banned nearly all abortions in the state; she called her “a great law that is already on the books“, which briefly came back into effect after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

Now he offers a more nuanced position: opposing a federal ban and acknowledging that his own views on state policy conflict with the preferences of some voters.

in a statement on his campaign website Published earlier this fall, Lake said that while she “wants to do everything she can to help women choose life, to choose to bring that blessing into their own existence,” she “also recognizes that most people in this country and in the The state of Arizona maintains that abortion should be legal with restrictions.”

“Arizona law currently allows abortions up to 15 weeks and Kari does not support a federal abortion ban. “Abortion is, as the courts have decided, an issue for states to decide, not the federal government,” her website says. (Lake’s campaign, which NBC News asked to clarify her position, referred to her website.)

Pennsylvania: Dave McCormick

Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, greet supporters at a primary election night event in Pittsburgh in May 2022.Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

McCormick, who faces little opposition for the chance to run against Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, said in a Republican primary debate during his unsuccessful Senate campaign last year that life begins at conception and that “in very rare cases, there should be exceptions for the life of the mother.”

Democrats began running ads against McCormick in Pennsylvania with those statements in July of this year, two months before he even entered the race, prompting his campaign to spend much of its early weeks clarifying that he had also said who had supported exceptions for abortion. care in cases of rape, incest and saving the life of the mother.

“As Dave has said numerous times in the last cycle and more recently, he is pro-life and supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest and saving the life of the mother,” said McCormick campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Gregory.

Nevada: Sam Brown

Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown thanks his supporters as he awaits election results at his campaign office in Reno in June 2022.Josh Edelson File/Getty Images

Brown, who is running against Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen, has he described himself as “pro-life” and opposed to “any bill that boosts federal funding for abortion, late-term abortions, or abortion without parental notification” and supports “federal judges who understand the importance of protecting life.”

he declined as recently as July to weigh on whether he would support a national ban on abortion. But responding to requests to clarify his position, Brown said he opposed a possible federal ban on abortion and that any restrictions against health care should include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.

“I have consistently maintained that this issue should be decided at the state level, and the people of Nevada have made their decision,” he said in a statement. “Personally I am pro-life and I believe there should be exceptions for tragic situations of rape, incest and when the mother’s life is at risk.”

Ohio: Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, Matt Dolan

Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Delaware, Ohio, on April 23, 2022. Joe Maiorana/AP

Businessman Bernie Moreno, one of three Republican candidates seeking to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, has circled around the issue of abortion.

Moreno has saying that “Republicans should never back away from their belief that life begins at conception and that abortion is the murder of an innocent baby.” Earlier this year, in an attempt to define his views on a ballot measure that voters approved in Ohio last month to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution, he falsely claimed that the measure would allow a rapist to “force ” a woman to abort. .

More recently, Moreno has offered more nuance about his position on the issue at the national level. She said in October that supports a 15-week federal abortion ban that would include exceptions for rape, incest and saving the mother’s life, but would also allow states to issue additional restrictions.

Moreno’s two competitors for the Republican Senate nomination — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan — have also made clear their opposition to abortion, but do not appear to have yet backed away from any previous comments.

In August, LaRose said NBC News that “if a pro-life measure comes before the Senate, then I would vote as a pro-life American.”

As a state senator in 2018, he voted for a six-week abortion ban that went into effect (but is currently blocked by a judge) after Roe was overturned. The law does not contain exceptions for rape and incest.

LaRose drew criticism from abortion rights supporters earlier this year when he acknowledged that the August special election was “100% on keeping a radical pro-abortion amendment out of our constitution.” And last month, LaRose, who as the state’s top elections official had the final say on the language of the November ballot measure, went even further: admitting that he had consulted with three anti-abortion groups when drafting the electoral text to describe the measure.

In a statement, LaRose campaign spokesman Ben Kindel said LaRose “will always fight for the rights of the unborn and women’s health care.”

Dolan, for his part, had criticized the Number 1 ballot measure as “extreme” and has said that abortion policy should be left to the states.

“The pro-life movement has worked hard to give it back to the states,” he said. said shipping from Columbus in October. “He’s back there, and I would prefer that states address it on a state-by-state basis.”

Dolan has also saying I would not support any anti-abortion legislation that does not contain exceptions for rape and incest.

Michigan: Mike Rogers, Peter Meijer, James Craig

Then-Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., at a news conference at the Capitol on May 12, 2022.Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images archive

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, one of several Republicans running for an open Senate seat, has suggested he would not support any federal restrictions on abortion if elected.

“Will I go to Washington, DC and try to undo what the citizens of Michigan voted for? “I won’t do it,” he said the Detroit News in September. Last year, Michigan voters approved a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion.

But abortion rights supporters have pointed out that Rogers, during his 14 years in Congress, voted at least twice in favor of federal restrictions on abortion. That included supporting a bill In 2012, that would have banned almost all abortions (and would not have included any exceptions for rape or incest) and a bill in 2013 that would have criminalized most abortion services in the United States.

Similarly, former Rep. Peter Meijer, who as a member of Congress repeatedly voted against expand the right to abortion saying Recently, while he was “proud” of his record of “protecting life,” he acknowledged that “we are clearly in a different world today after Roe is gone.”

“I don’t support federal abortion bans, period, period,” Meijer said Detroit Free Press last week, adding that abortion restrictions “will be decided at the state level.”

Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who before the 2022 Supreme Court ruling had repeatedly said that supported a 1931 abortion ban since repealed in the state, told the Detroit News in October who opposed a federal ban on abortion.

“I think a child’s heartbeat is important. But I am also sensitive to it being realistic and something that should be left to the states,” she said.

Spokespeople for the Rogers, Craig and Meijer campaigns did not respond to questions.