3 Candidates Who Embraced Abortion and Went Down in Flames
By: Ben Johnson, originally published November 12, 2024, The Washington Stand
n 2024, the conventional wisdom of the Beltway elite — in both parties — held that candidates had to moderate their pro-life stances in order to win in a post-Dobbs world. Once again, the wisdom of the ”experts” fell flat. Multiple candidates who hoped an indifference or embrace of abortion-on-demand would elevate them to national victory saw their careers go down in flames.
1. Senator Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.)
Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) lost his Senate seat — although, as of this writing, he’s not ready to admit it yet. Legacy media outlets including the Associated Press, Politico, and NPR have called the race for Republican candidate Dave McCormick, who prevailed by 35,000 votes. Yet Casey refuses to concede, despite promising he would accept the results of the 2024 election.
Casey has not yet processed the fact that he has received his just reward for abandoning his reputation as a pro-life Democrat and squandering his father’s venerable legacy. For the early part of his career, Casey — the son of the late, legendary Governor Robert P. Casey — maintained a moderately pro-life voting record in a state where many Democrats protect life and many Republicans embraced abortion. In 2002, Casey said he supported “the one exception for the life of the mother.” As a senator, he voted to protect about 1% of unborn babies aborted after 20 weeks. But soon, Casey’s record and his rhetoric began to part ways.
Like other Democrats with aspirations to higher office, Casey decided to “evolve” toward abortion. Casey repeatedly voted to fund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, even after a series of videos that exposed the billion-dollar industry’s profiting from the sale of aborted babies’ organs. “Sen. Bob Casey calls himself a pro-life Democrat. But his voting record paints a different picture,” reported Politico during Casey’s 2018 campaign.
In 2022, he finally came out of the closet. Casey voted for the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act,” the most radical abortion expansion bill of the session. Casey branded the Dobbs decision a “dangerous ruling” that “rips away a constitutional right,” will “put women’s lives at risk,” and assures that girls “grow up with fewer rights than their mothers.” (He neglected the importance of allowing “our daughters and granddaughters” the right to grow up.) He even stood by and did nothing as Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) defunded his father’s Real Alternatives plan, which provides funding for pro-life pregnancy resource centers. Like other vulnerable Democratic senators this election cycle, Casey — who voted with Joe Biden 98.5% of the time and with President Donald Trump 29% of the time, and voted to impeach Trump twice — ran an ad claiming he “bucked Biden” and “sided with Trump.”
But even with Casey portraying McCormick as an anti-abortion fanatic, and abortion reportedly playing a “major” role in the race, the mighty Casey struck out.
This author delivered the keynote speech to a pro-life group in Northeastern Pennsylvania in 2015 when the president read messages of support — including a telegram from Bob Casey. At the mention of his name, the pro-life advocates broke out into a round of boos. The president later clarified that not everyone who offers verbal support has the voting record to back it up. Pennsylvania voters caught on to Bob Casey’s game and voted accordingly. Campaign consultants should learn it is a losing position to abandon life, even for Democrats.
2. Kari Lake
Exactly one week after election day, the networks have reported that Democrat Ruben Gallego has defeated Republican Kari Lake for Arizona’s open Senate seat. Lake’s loss comes in an eminently winnable state. Gallego is a radical “progressive” who favors open borders, a radical in a state where the state’s incumbent Democratic U.S. senator, Mark Kelly, poses as a border hawk.
Perhaps Lake’s most pronounced vulnerability as a candidate was her radical about-face on abortion. As a candidate for governor against radical Katie Hobbs just two years ago, Lake described abortion as “the killing,” “the sacrifice,” and “the execution of the baby in the mother’s womb.”
“All baby lives matter,” Lake told a cheering crowd in 2022. “Every single one of them. Every single heartbeat.”
But then former President Donald Trump announced he opposed any national pro-life protections, and Lake followed suit. When the state supreme court upheld a state pro-life protection sheltering nearly all babies from abortion, Lake replied, “I oppose today’s ruling.”
“This total ban on abortion that the Arizona Supreme Court just ruled on is out of line with where the people of this state are. The issue is less about banning abortion and more about saving babies,” the new Lake continued. “We know that some women are economically in a horrible situation. They might be in an abusive relationship. They might be the victim of rape.”
The legacy media, which retained unique ire for Lake, celebrated her policy change. “How Kari Lake’s Tactical Retreat on Abortion Could Point the Way for the G.O.P.,” claimed a news article in The New York Times by Michael C. Bender on October 14, 2023. But pro-life advocates mourned. “Kari Lake just announced she thinks it’s OK to legalize child killing, provided enough people vote for it. Horrific,” replied Lila Rose, founder of Live Action.
Republicans should have been in an advantageous position against Rep. Ruben Gallego, known for his extremism in tone and substance. On immigration, Gallego earned an F- from NumbersUSA. He also voted against a measure disapproving of noncitizens voting in U.S. elections, as well as the SAVE Act. Among his numerous public uses of the f-word, Gallego —who earned a 0% from National Right to Life, endorsed an extreme abortion bill that would strike down more than 1,300 pro-life protections, and threatened to end the filibuster to expand abortion nationwide — called Senator Ted Cruz a “f****** baby killer.” Gallego favors the radical (and radically misnamed) “Equality Act” to force Christian health care providers to take part in transgender surgeries. This session, Gallego did not cast a single vote endorsed by FRC Action and has a 5% lifetime score from Heritage Action.
Yet Ruben Gallego reinvented himself as a faux moderate, while Democrats used Kari Lake’s dueling abortion positions to portray her as inauthentic and untrustworthy. In the end, he defeated Lake by more than two points, or approximately 470,000 votes. And 62% of Arizona voters supported Proposition 139, creating a “right” to abortion in the state constitution.
When announcing her new abortion stance, Lake vowed, “As your senator, I will oppose federal funding for abortion and federal banning of abortion. I’m not going to Washington, D.C. to impose federal restrictions on something that’s already been sent back to the states.”
As it turns out, she was half-right: She’s not going to Washington, D.C. — at least, not to the Senate. Undeniably, many pro-life voters refused to support Lake after her flip-flop. Lake, at times an eloquent spokesperson for the pro-life cause and other issues, should have had a bright future in politics, and she may have a place in the administration of her close friend and advocate Donald Trump. But it is lamentable this Senate seat fell into the hands of an abortion radical after a misguided decision to sacrifice the most vulnerable.
3. Larry Hogan
Any Republican running in Maryland faces an uphill battle, even a popular former governor like Larry Hogan. Republican campaign strategists believed the “pro-choice Republican” and Never Trumper was the only kind of Republican who could win in the deep-blue state. On election day, history once again proved “the only Republican who can win” usually loses. Hogan lost to Democrat Angela Alsobrooks by 10 points.
“With the dust settling from a contentious election, it’s clear that some Republicans did not get the message that we vote Pro-Life First, which is why we can’t be sorry to see some of Biden’s favorite Republicans leaving office for new careers,” said Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins in an email sent to The Washington Stand. “Pro-life voters will not ignore the actions of legislators who attempt to make them homeless, without a party to vote for [life] rather than only voting against.”
Hawkins included Hogan in a list of dishonorable mentions. “Now that the election is over, there are a few Republicans we will not be sorry to see leave their offices,” said Hawkins, before offering a helping hand. “Let us know if you need some moving boxes; our student activists would be happy to deliver them.”
These election results should show that embracing abortion is not a winning message. Abandoning life creates a loss, for politicians and our nation, that incalculably exceeds the loss of any one election cycle.
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.
Images: United States Congress/Gage Skidmore, CC-BY-SA-2.0/Maryland GovPics, CC-BY-2.0