National Abortion Ban Puts “Swing-State Republicans On Defense” As “Republican Senate Candidates Appear Ill-Prepared To Respond”

CNN: “Many Republican Senate candidates appear ill-prepared to respond to the Graham bill”
The Hill: “The issue has forced a number of Republican Senate candidates and campaigns to have to respond to Graham’s proposed abortion ban”
CNBC: “Media outlets panned it as an unforced error at a pivotal moment”

Over the weekend, new reporting highlighted how Senate Republicans’ national abortion ban has put “swing-state Republicans on defense” and “baffled even some Republican political experts” as “Republican Senate candidates appear ill-prepared to respond” to what “media outlets panned… as an unforced error at a pivotal moment.”

See for yourself:

CNN: Graham’s 15-week abortion bill further complicates Republican midterm messaging
By Dan Merica and Michael Warren
September 17, 2022

• Many Republican Senate candidates appear ill-prepared to respond to the Graham bill, with several either distancing themselves from it, obfuscating with their answers or just not engaging on the topic.

• In private, though, many Republican operatives are rolling their eyes at Graham, especially those tasked with winning key Senate seats.

• “It certainly does complicate some things,” said a Republican operative working on Senate races.

• Georgia Senate nominee Herschel Walker took two incongruent positions in his statement, saying he believes “the issue should be decided at the state level” but that he would support such a federal law. Pennsylvania Senate nominee Mehmet Oz… did not take a firm position on the Graham bill. Other Republican Senate nominees did not respond to CNN’s questions, including Ohio’s J.D. Vance and North Carolina’s Rep. Ted Budd.

• “Senate Republicans are putting one of the ugliest, least popular pieces of their agenda on full display,” said David Bergstein, top spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “For voters, it will be another powerful argument to vote against GOP Senate candidates in November.”

• Vance will attend a fundraiser next month with the South Carolina senator. And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who is up for reelection this year, has co-sponsored Graham’s bill.

• Blake Masters, the GOP Senate nominee in Arizona, has faced scrutiny for his recent attempts to moderate his position on abortion since winning his primary last month. But this week, he leaned into his support for limiting abortion access. “Of course, I support Lindsey Graham’s 15-week bill, and I hope it passes,” Masters said in a statement to CNN.

• New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan made abortion the focus on her first general election ad after Tuesday’s primary in the state saw Don Bolduc win the Republican Party’s Senate nomination.

• “Don Bolduc and anti-choice Republicans are taking away your personal freedoms,” says the ad’s narrator.

• Cheri Beasley, the Democratic nominee in North Carolina, accused Budd of being “so hell-bent on getting in between a woman and her doctor that he would ban abortion even in instances of rape, incest and threats to a woman’s life.” Budd called instances of rape or incest a “tragedy” in an interview with CBS earlier this year, but added, “Let’s also realize there’s a second life there” and “why would you want to take a second life for something that’s already been harmed.”

• Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate nominee in the commonwealth, used Oz’s lack of a firm answer on the Graham bill to ask: “Would you vote for Sen. Graham’s bill to ban abortions after 15 weeks?”

• Laphonza Butler, the president of Emily’s List, an organization focused on electing Democratic women who support abortion rights, said Republicans “try to mislead voters about their agendas and hide their real records,” but the Graham bill makes clear that their goal is to “end abortion.” “The path to stopping them and protecting our freedom is equally clear: we must keep and expand our majorities in Congress,” she said.

The Hill: Swing-state Republicans on defense over Graham’s abortion ban
By Julia Manchester
September 18, 2022

• Democrats are working to take full advantage on the campaign trail of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) proposed 15-week abortion ban, looking to back their opponents into a corner on an issue Republicans had spent months trying to pivot away from.

• Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman called on Republican candidate Mehmet Oz to take a position on Graham’s proposal, while incumbent New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan (D) warned that her GOP opponent Don Bolduc and congressional Republicans would push for a nationwide ban on the procedure if elected.

• “Don Bolduc has said that he would never vote against anti-choice legislation and would clearly join Senate Republicans in voting to ban abortion nationwide,” said Sydney Petersen, a spokesperson for Hassan’s campaign. “His anti-choice record is dangerous and out of touch with New Hampshire, and is in stark contrast to Senator Hassan’s record of fighting for a woman’s fundamental freedom.”

• In Ohio, Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan also railed against Graham’s proposed ban, telling the Cincinnati Enquirer that “this latest attack on women’s freedom is exactly” what his GOP opponent J.D. Vance wanted and “and exactly why Ohioans won’t let him anywhere near the Senate.”

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-Nev.) campaign wasted no time tying her GOP opponent Adam Laxalt to Graham’s bill.

• “As Attorney General, Laxalt pushed for strict abortion bans across the country and even worked to restrict birth control access. He has focused his campaign on a statewide abortion ban that is even more restrictive than the federal ban proposed today, so there is no question he would support it if elected,” said Cortez Masto spokesperson Josh Marcus-Blank.

• Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly’s campaign similarly went on the offensive after his GOP opponent Blake Masters supported Graham’s proposed ban.

• “Republicans are showing voters exactly what they would do if they are in charge: pass a nationwide abortion ban and strip away women’s right to make our own health care decisions,” said Nora Keefe, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “For Americans of every political persuasion who value the freedom to make their own decisions about their family’s health care, the stakes of protecting and expanding our Democratic Senate majority in November have never been higher.”

• The issue has forced a number of Republican Senate candidates and campaigns to have to respond to Graham’s proposed abortion ban when they likely would rather be talking about other issues.

• “They have made clear where they stand on this issue,” the national Democratic operative said. “As far as Senate Republicans running this cycle, we’re going to make sure that voters see and hear what they have said in their own words.”

CNBC: Lindsey Graham’s abortion ban bill baffles some Republicans as Democrats sharpen attacks in key midterm races
By Kevin Breuninger
September 16, 2022

• Graham’s announcement on Tuesday drove a fresh wave of headlines about abortion, as Democrats lined up to condemn the bill that would sharply narrow access to the procedure.

• Herschel Walker, the Republican vying for incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock’s Georgia seat in another critical race, said he would back Graham’s legislation.

• “Oz needs to tell us — yes or no, would you support this bill?” Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the state’s Democratic Senate nominee, said in a statement Thursday morning. “I’ll go first: I’m a HELL NO.”

• Graham’s move baffled even some Republican political experts. Some media outlets panned it as an unforced error at a pivotal moment when the fight over the House and Senate appears to have tightened.

• “I don’t know why he did it,” said Georgia-based GOP strategist Jay Williams.

• Some Republicans, including GOP candidates in pivotal Senate races, have backed Graham’s new proposal. “I have always been pro-life,” Rubio said when asked why he signed on to the bill.

• As Graham’s bill brought a renewed focus to the issue, Democrats pounced.

• “Herschel Walker thinks it’s a problem our country doesn’t have a national abortion ban,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., said of his Republican rival in a tweet Tuesday, before posting a video of Walker saying as much.

• In Pennsylvania, Fetterman scheduled a press conference with OB/GYNs at Philadelphia city hall to criticize the proposed 15-week abortion ban. He pushed his opponent, Oz, to answer questions about his stance on the bill.

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