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Vulnerable House Republicans and far-right candidates are desperately trying to cover up their out-of-touch, anti-abortion records in some of the most competitive races in the country.
New reporting from CNN highlights five Republican members and five candidates who all scrubbed their websites or have tried to hide past statements supporting abortion bans or other efforts to severely restrict women’s freedoms. The Republicans called out are:
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Incumbents:
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Candidates:
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Joe Kent (WA-03)
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Alison Esposito (NY-18)
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Tom Barrett (MI-07)
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Yvette Herrell (NM-02)
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Mayra Flores (TX-34)
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DCCC Spokesperson Viet Shelton:
“These anti-abortion extremists are twisting themselves into pretzels to hide a simple truth from voters: they want to ban abortion nationwide. Unfortunately, the internet is forever.”
Read more about the Republicans’ efforts to mislead voters about their dangerous records:
CNN: Republican candidates downplay past anti-abortion stances ahead of 2024 election
By Em Steck, Andrew Kaczynski, Marco Chacón, and Patrick Gallagher
April 12, 2024
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Republican candidates in close races across the country who once fervently backed severe abortion restrictions are shifting how they talk about the issue.
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On social media, in public comments and in talking points on their websites, candidates are shying away from past hard-line positions and softening their stances. In some cases, the changes have been overt, with candidates reversing course on supporting outright bans on abortion or even denying they ever opposed it.
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Since that decision, voters have affirmed abortion rights in every state that has put the issue on the ballot. The 2022 midterm elections also saw a number of anti-abortion Republicans lose, dissolving GOP hopes for a ‘red wave’ that year.
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Ahead of this year’s election, some of those losing candidates are trying to rebrand themselves by moderating their positions on abortion. Others, including some incumbents, are avoiding the issue entirely as anti-abortion rhetoric and policies are seen as politically toxic.
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Republican Rep. David Schweikert, who represents an Arizona district that Joe Biden would have narrowly carried under its current lines, proudly touted his pro-life record on his website from 2014 to 2020: “100 percent pro-life throughout his career, David Schweikert is committed to protecting and defending the rights of the unborn.” Now, Schweikert’s website makes no mention of abortion at all.
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US Rep. Michelle Steel, a two-term whose Southern California district would have backed Joe Biden under its current lines, co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act, a bill colloquially known as a personhood law, that would recognize a fertilized egg as a person with equal protections under the 14th Amendment. The bill would effectively ban abortion in all cases and would threaten in vitro fertilization.
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But after facing backlash from voters following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that reproductive rights advocates said could have a chilling effect on IVF, Steel rescinded her support for the bill because she does “not support federal restrictions on IVF.”
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A former New York City police officer, Alison Esposito unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor of New York in 2022 on a ticket with Republican gubernatorial nominee Lee Zeldin.
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In that race, Esposito answered “yes” on a questionnaire from an anti-abortion group asking if she’d vote for legislation to “protect innocent human life from conception to natural death.” Now, running in a swing district for Congress, Esposito says she opposes any abortion ban nationally.
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Michigan congressional candidate Tom Barrett, a former state senator, once called himself “completely pro-life, no exceptions” in campaign flyers he sent out in 2022. He once told The Detroit News he did not support exceptions for rape or incest, but that he considers “pro-life to be pro-life for the mother, as well.”
- In 2022, while running for this Central Michigan seat, Barrett removed the “values” section of his campaign website that vowed he would “always work to protect life from conception.” […] Now, running for the same seat in 2024, Barrett lists no positions on abortion at all on his website.
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