Abortion Did Not Hurt Republican Candidates

Since Election Day, the media spin has been that Republicans underperformed because Roe v. Wade had been overturned by the Supreme Court.

While the claim is being pushed by those who want abortion rights, or those who would prefer the GOP stay away from the issue, the data shows that the spin is just a lot of bunk.

It is true that Democrats ran hard in support of restoring Roe v. Wade while making false claims the Supreme Court and Republicans were outlawing abortion. (They weren’t.)

Still, in race after race, abortion was not the deciding factor in the election.

Take, for example, races in New York, a state that has long championed itself as one of the most pro-abortion in the Union.

Pro-life Republican candidate for New York governor, Lee Zeldin, brought out the biggest GOP vote across the state in almost five decades.

Trump had lost to Biden in the state in 2020 by 23 points.

While Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul made abortion a key issue, Zeldin closed the Trump gap by 18 points, coming within 5 points of victory.

In fact, all across New York, a red wave did hit, with 10 Republicans winning congressional seats. Nine of them are pro-life.

The GOP also made a net gain of three House seats, including picking up seats in two suburban New York City districts where Democrats outregistered Republicans.

We kept hearing suburban women were all voting against the GOP this year. But pro-life Assemblyman Mike Lawler unseated incumbent Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney. Maloney had made abortion a major issue.

In many significant races across the U.S., Democrats used the abortion card without success.

No fewer than 12 strongly pro-life Republican governors were elected and not a single one was unseated, namely Kay Ivey of Alabama, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Brad Little of Idaho, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Kristi Noem of North Dakota, Bill Lee of Tennessee, Greg Abbott of Texas and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.

Particularly noteworthy was the landslide 59% to 41% reelection of Florida's pro-life governor, DeSantis.

This past April, DeSantis signed a restrictive abortion law, banning all such procedures in the state after 15 weeks of gestation.

Meanwhile, his well-funded opponent, Charlie Crist, made DeSantis' support of the law a major issue in the campaign.

In recent elections, Florida had been trending blue. DeSantis had only squeaked by in 2018 to win the governorship.

This year, DeSantis not only won by a record Republican margin, he even won Democratic strongholds Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

If abortion was such a determinative issue, how could that have happened?

And how could Ohio have happened this year?

Ohio has long been a bellwether state, yet Republican Gov. DeWine won reelection this year by a a whopping 26 point margin.

In 2019, DeWine had a signed a heartbeat bill, banning abortion after the first sign of fetal cardiac activity.

DeWine's win was mirrored by the reelection of Attorney General Dave Yost, along with pro-life majorities in the Ohio Legislature and three pro-life candidates taking seats on the state Supreme Court.

Across the U.S., Republicans clearly underperformed in the 2022 midterms due to such factors as having poor candidates, being outspent by Democrats and running with an economy that is still strong with low unemployment.

But in race after race, abortion was not the winning issue Democrats and the big media claim.