Scoop: House Dems try to make post-Dobbs comments haunt GOP
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Pro-abortion protesters gather outside the Supreme Court after justices overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images.
House Democrats are launching their opening salvo in what promises to be a week filled with abortion-related messaging by whacking five swing-district Republicans who praised the end of Roe v. Wade two years ago, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: In a campaign already deeply focused on abortion, Democrats plan to double down this week to mark the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision on Monday.
The big picture: It's a repeat of Democrats' full-court press around last year's anniversary — with the proximity to the November election adding heightened urgency this time around.
Driving the news: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will send mobile billboards to five swing districts quoting House Republicans who contemporaneously expressed agreement with the Dobbs decision.
- The lawmakers targeted by the five-figure buy: Reps. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.).
- "Over the next five months, we will ensure the American public does not forget that it was House Republicans who praised Donald Trump's Supreme Court for ending reproductive freedom as we know it," said DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermol.
Between the lines: Republicans have increasingly distanced themselves from Dobbs as backlash to the decision has repeatedly fueled Democratic strength in ensuing elections.
- "In special election after special election since November 2022, we've seen just incredible increased turnout because people are standing up for reproductive freedom," DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said in a press call Thursday.
The other side: National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Will Reinert noted that the five districts are not included in the DCCC's first ad reservations of the 2024 cycle.
- "Money talks, and the DCCC declining to reserve a cent of fall advertising in any of these seats — devoting 86% of spending to defend their vulnerable incumbents — tells the entire story," he said.
- "A cheap stunt can't change the fact that Republicans are aligned with the American people, while Democrats' radical position remains abortion on demand up to the moment of birth."
Zoom in: GOP lawmakers' responses to the DCCC campaign underscore the disparate approaches Republicans have taken to fight Democrats' abortion messaging.
- Perry stressed his support for Dobbs in a statement, saying it "puts the issue of mandatory taxpayer-funded abortion in the hands of the states, with the people, where it belongs."
- LaLota accused Democrats of using "scare tactics" and said he has "consistently opposed a national abortion ban and supported access to IVF, contraceptives, and mifepristone," calling his position on abortion "akin to Bill Clinton's."
- A spokesperson for Steel sidestepped the issue altogether, saying that while Democrats are "busy driving a truck around on the 405," she is "focusing on lowering costs for families, getting the border under control and taking on the Chinese Communist Party."
