Republicans are still struggling to navigate the issue of abortion as they face a barrage of Democratic attacks, with Ohio GOP Senate hopeful Bernie Moreno’s latest comments — suggesting it is not an issue, “especially for women that are, like, past 50” — underscoring the party’s continuing challenges.
The GOP is confident about taking control of the Senate this year, thanks to a path to the majority that runs through red states. But some Republican strategists warn that comments like Moreno’s aren’t helpful as he tries to defeat a well-known senator in Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown.
“Bernie oof,” one Republican who works on Senate races texted after the Moreno story broke Monday.
“Honestly I think Bernie is heading in the right direction but handed Sherrod an opening with that,” this person added.
Another Republican strategist who has worked in Ohio said that “Ohio voters keenly focused on abortion access as a top issue have long since made up their mind on how they’re voting in November.” But the strategist added, “That said, those of us hoping to take back the Senate would sleep a lot better if Bernie exercised an ounce of discipline and refrained from a closing message geared toward boosting Sherrod Brown’s limited strengths.”
And former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley issued her blunt assessment on X, writing, “Are you trying to lose the election?”
The blow-up comes as Democrats have been hammering Republicans across the country on the abortion issue, as polling shows Kamala Harris holding a wider advantage on the issue than Democrats enjoyed over Republicans in the 2022 midterms, and amid some GOP concern about whether the party has proactively addressed voter concerns about abortion policy enough in this campaign.
In the seven most competitive Senate races, Democratic campaigns and outside groups launched 33 TV ads on abortion just in the last week, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Just one Republican ad, a Spanish-language spot from an outside group targeting Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, mentioned abortion.
Moreno’s comments could provide more fodder for those spots, which are expected to continue through Election Day.
“As long as Republican politicians back dangerous abortion bans, their problematic views, ignorant comments and anti-women votes will be a major factor for voters and one that Democrats will continue to litigate across the battlefield,” said Sarah Guggenheimer, the spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC, the main Democratic outside group engaged in Senate races.
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Tommy Garcia also said in a statement, “On record and on video, Republican Senate candidates continue to show voters just how out-of-touch they are on one of the defining issues of this election.”
Democrats successfully deployed a similar strategy in 2022, when they defied expectations and kept control of the Senate despite President Joe Biden’s poor approval ratings. Some Republicans warned that the party’s failure to counter abortion attacks cost them crucial seats that year.
In 2022, exit polling found Democrats had an 11-point advantage on the issue of abortion. The latest NBC News national poll found a majority of voters (54%) saying Harris would better deal with the issue, while 33% said the same of Trump. It was one of the top scores Harris received on a slate of issues tested in the survey.
The challenge for the GOP, said Republican strategist Gail Gitcho, “is not falling into the same trap of what happened in 2022. And what happened in 2022 was Republicans didn’t do anything to respond on abortion. Nothing.”
GOP Senate candidates have been slow to proactively talk about the issue so far.
Just three candidates in targeted Senate seats — Nevada’s Sam Brown, Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick and Maryland’s Larry Hogan — have launched TV ads captured by AdImpact that mention abortion. Each of them features the candidates saying that they would not support a federal ban. Florida Sen. Rick Scott also launched an ad pledging to protect in-vitro fertilization.
That could change as the Democratic onslaught continues.
“We have known that Democrats were going to go all in-on abortion the entire cycle,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Mike Berg. “Republicans plan to combat Democrat lies on this issue aggressively.”
But, so far, Republicans have been focused on other issues that polling shows are top-of-mind for voters, like the economy, inflation and immigration.
“Republicans would do well to acknowledge the real fears that many women across America have,” said Lauren Zelt, who worked for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. “At the same time, their best strategy in this moment is to draw on the very real experience that families are facing with economic hardships in our country today.”
Indeed, the same NBC News poll showing Harris with a lead over Trump on handling abortion policy also showed abortion ranking fifth among voters’ top issues, well behind the economy, cost of living and the border.
Abortion on the ballot
Meanwhile, constitutional amendments that would protect or expand abortion rights are set to appear on the general election ballot in 10 states, including four with pivotal Senate contests — Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Montana.
In theory, the placement of those ballot measures, which all seek to enshrine abortion rights through fetal viability, puts the issue even more front and center in those states — on the airwaves and in Democratic campaign messaging.
But that hasn’t given Democratic candidates decisive red-state boosts yet.
In Montana, Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester has aggressively attacked his Republican challenger Tim Sheehy for his stance on abortion rights. And in Florida, Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel Powell has done the same against Republican Sen. Rick Scott. Both Republicans have said they oppose the proposed amendments in their states.
But both Democrats have trailed in public polling of their campaigns, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates the Montana race as “Lean Republican” and the Florida race as “Likely Republican.”
On the other hand, apparent pivots by Republicans in some other states haven’t led to polling leads, either. In Arizona, Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake has softened her position on abortion rights. The same is true in Nevada, where Republican Sam Brown has worked to reshape the perception of his views on abortion — though he has come out against the proposed amendment there. Lake and Brown have both trailed Democrats in public polling of their states.
Positioning on abortion rights “is a current Republicans have to swim against in almost every race,” said veteran Republican strategist Alex Conant, “but it’s not the defining issue in every race.”
“Some Republicans are able to message on the issue better than others, in part because of their own records, tone, past statements, and whether or not they’re viewed as being extreme,” Conant said, adding that Moreno is likely to fall into the latter category.
In part, that’s because Moreno’s latest remarks aren’t an isolated faux pas.
During his primary last year, he falsely claimed that a ballot measure enshrining the right to abortion care in the state constitution (the measure passed last November) would let a rapist “force” a woman to get an abortion — helping Democrats make the case that he is particularly extreme on the issue.
Now, his new comments bring the issue back to the forefront.
At a town hall this month, Moreno said, “The left has a lot of single-issue voters. Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ OK, a little crazy, by the way. But, especially for women that are like past 50, I’m thinking to myself, I don’t think that’s an issue for you. Oh, thank God my wife didn’t hear that one, I was going to get in trouble,” according to video obtained by NBC News and first reported by NBC affiliate WCMH in Columbus.
Moreno’s spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said the comments were “a tongue-in-cheek joke about how Sherrod Brown and members of the left-wing media like to pretend that the only issue that matters to women voters is abortion.”
Democrats have seized on Moreno’s comments, with Brown’s campaign contrasting them with Ohioans’ support for a state constitutional amendment nearly protecting access to abortion, which easily passed last year.
“Moreno clearly thinks he knows better than Ohioans and his comments are insulting to everyone who believes a woman’s healthcare decisions should be between her and her doctor,” Brown spokesperson Reeves Oyster said in a statement.
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