2024 GOP Gov Candidates Run on Losing Issue of Attacking Reproductive Freedom

2024 GOP Gov Candidates Run on Losing Issue of Attacking Reproductive Freedom

“Voters don’t want abortion bans, GOP governor candidates are pushing for them anyway”

New reporting from American Journal News highlights how despite being highly unpopular with voters, Republican candidates for governor in battleground states like New Hampshire and North Carolina are fully embracing anti-choice extremism, adopting a major losing issue for their party as a key pillar of their campaigns.

Recent polling from these states underscores a stark reality for anti-choice extremists in the governor’s race:

In New Hampshire, 63% of voters oppose the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and 64% would prefer a governor who would protect abortion rights. Even so, leading candidates Kelly Ayotte and Chuck Morse — who pushed for a national abortion ban in the U.S. Senate, and helped enact New Hampshire’s current ban that criminalizes doctors, respectively — have staked out an extreme position that would further threaten women’s reproductive freedom.

In North Carolina — where 51% of voters oppose the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and 52% would prefer a governor who would protect abortion rights — leading Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson has “explicitly referred to abortion as murder and asserted that pregnant people do not have bodily autonomy.”

Robinson’s record of anti-choice extremism includes pledging to “pass a bill saying you can’t have an abortion in North Carolina for any reason” if elected governor.

Outside of New Hampshire and North Carolina, protecting reproductive freedom is set to play a major role in the Montana governor’s race, after Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a slate of anti-choice legislation, ignoring the will of Montanans after voters decisively rejected an anti-abortion ballot measure in 2022.

“Anti-choice candidates running for governor in races across the country are more interested in pushing highly unpopular abortion bans without exceptions for victims of rape and incest, than representing the will of the people,” said DGA National Press Secretary Devon Cruz. “We look forward to holding these anti-choice extremists accountable and ensuring that attacking fundamental freedoms continues to be a losing issue for them.”

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