Going into the 2022 midterm elections, everyone from the nation’s top political analysts to average voters speculated about the role that abortion would play in the outcome. For the first time in 50 years, Roe v. Wade was no longer in place, and abortion has been in the news every single day. On Election Day we finally got to see the impact on election results, and the result is not surprising – standing for Life is still a winning issue!
Abortion did NOT impact the tides of the election and certainly did NOT hurt conservatives.
Democrats had hoped that abortion would bring voters out in droves, especially in states like Texas where Pro-Life laws are currently in place and saving lives. This did not happen. Overall, voter turnout was lower than expected, including with abortion-supporting Democratic voters. Around half a million fewer early votes were cast this election cycle as compared to 2018, with more than 10 million eligible Texans not casting a ballot.
Ardently pro-abortion gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke under-performed compared to his 2018 run for the U.S. Senate. In that election, Beto lost by a margin of less than 3%. In this election, he lost by a full 11 points. Beto received half a million votes fewer than he did in 2018.
Republicans easily took all statewide races for the 13th election in a row. Momentum shows no signs of slowing. Every single incumbent in the general election who voted to pass the Texas Heartbeat Act in 2021 won re-election. We also replaced several moderate Republicans with high-quality, bold conservatives. Abortion extremism has still proven to be a lackluster motivator when it comes to galvanizing voters and getting them to the polls in Texas.
In races across the nation, we saw that Pro-Life candidates who took strong stances against abortion did better than those who were either weak or silent on the issue.
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis won re-election by a wide margin, even flipping once-blue Miami-Dade County. DeSantis consistently stood his ground on social issues, and this move paid off. In other races, such as the Senate race in Pennsylvania, Republican candidate Dr. Oz largely kept abortion out of the conversation, resulting in his loss of that seat.
There were five states that had abortion on the ballot. Three of them — California, Vermont, and Michigan — voted to add the explicit right to abortion in their state constitutions. This is not surprising, as these states are all Democratic strongholds. That these measures passed is tragic, but they will not change the current status of abortion in those states.
Kentucky sought to add an amendment to its constitution clarifying that there is no right to abortion in the state. Although it failed to pass, abortion is still illegal in Kentucky under state statute, and Kentucky voters still overwhelmingly elected Pro-Life candidates, including the representatives who passed their trigger law and put this amendment on the ballot.
Overall, it seems that abortion did not have any bigger impact on this election than it has in past elections. Contrary to the hopes and expectations of abortion advocates, Pro-Life Republican voters were not intimidated by the strength of our Life-saving laws. Democrat voters did not turn out en masse, as the abortion industry counted on them to do. And despite unprecedented attempts to galvanize the youth, only 27% of voters aged 18-29 cast their ballot compared to the overall turnout of 45.7%.
On top of these victories for Life, all four cities in Texas voting on the Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance passed the measure. Hobbs, New Mexico, a city the abortion industry had been eyeing to prey on New Mexico and Texas babies, passed a similar enforceable city-wide measure one day before the election.
The Left is losing. Defense of innocent human Life is still a winning issue for Republicans. This election gives no reason or excuse to back down from our current Life-saving laws or from our bold agenda for the upcoming 88th Legislature.