Republicans must confront abortion issue ‘head-on’ to win swing voters in 2024: RNC chair

Republican candidates have to confront the abortion issue to win swing voters in 2024 following the drubbing the GOP got in 2022 for ducking the debate, party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel declared Sunday.

In June, US Supreme Court overturned 50-year-old case law legalizing a federal right to abortion, leaving the decision to the states — a ruling GOP candidates failed to prioritize while Democrats turned it into a rallying cry.

That can’t happen next year, she said.

“What I will say is, the biggest takeaway we are taking is that independents did not break our way, which has to happen if we’re going to win in 2024, which usually that’s what causes that red wave. And abortion was a big issue in key states like Michigan and Pennsylvania,” McDaniel said on Fox News Sunday while discussing last year’s midterms.

“And so, the guidance we’re going to give to our candidates is you have to address this head-on. The Democrats spent $360 million on this and many of our candidates across the board refused to talk about it, thinking, `oh, we can just talk about the economy and ignore this big issue’, and they can’t.”

Abortion was considered one of the issues that kept Republicans from winning back the Senate — and only retaking the House of Representatives by the slimmest of margins, McDaniel acknowledged.

She said Republicans can put Democrats on the defensive by painting them as extreme — and asking them if they support late-term abortion, which some abortion opponents consider infanticide.   

 “What abortion is a bad idea to Democrats? Ninth month, eighth month, seventh month? They can’t even articulate an abortion that’s a bad idea,” she said.

“Gender selection, if it’s a girl, you get to abort it? Tax-funded abortions for people where it’s against their religious conscience. That’s where Joe Biden was years ago. So I think put them on the defensive and articulate where you stand and that’s going to be that critical message that we have to get out .. .before 2024.”

In a sign the Supreme Court ruling galvanized pro-choice supporters, voters in conservative Kansas last August overwhelmingly rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would’ve outlawed abortion.

Also, McDaniel said it was important for presumptive GOP front-runner and former President Donald Trump and other candidates to participate in primary debates, and that all candidates should pledge to back the Republican nominee for the White House after a hard-fought primary.

She said unity is important for the Republicans to win back the White House, noting that President Biden and Democrats are trying to paint them as divided.

Trump has threatened to duck debates.

“I think one of the other takeaways we took from the midterms in 2022 is that we just don’t just need independents, we need every Republican,” McDaniel said. “And we need to bring every Republican together. We have states where Republicans wouldn’t vote for Republican nominees and that was a big factor of why we lost some key Senate races.”

She added Biden “was right” that “we cannot win if we’re not united. If Republicans don’t vote for other Republicans, we’re not going to win. And we don’t just need all of the Republicans, we need independents, too.”

Biden has sought to paint the GOP as dominated by Trump’s base, the so-called “MAGA [Make America Great Again) Republicans.”

McDaniel seemed less concerned about Democrats accusing Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another White House aspirant, of banning books, praising him and other Republicans for “protecting our children” from sexually explicit and inappropriate material.