Bankrolled Pro-Abortion Candidates Win In Several US States (Worthy News Investigation)
By Worthy News’ George Whitten and Stefan J. Bos
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – Defenders of the unborn expressed sorrow after Democratic candidates supporting abortion rights won critical elections in several U.S. states on Tuesday, backed by millions in campaign funding.
The Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group said Republican losses in Virginia suggested consultants in the party need to “wake up” how they campaign against abortion. “We are deeply disappointed by last night’s results, which serve as a warning sign” for Republicans ahead of next year’s presidential elections, said Prolife America President Marjorie Dannenfelser
“Candidates must put money and messaging toward countering the Democrats’ attacks, or they will lose every time,” she warned.
Her words referred to races across the South and the Rust Belt, where Democrats focused on abortion rights in their campaigns, spending tens of millions of dollars on ads highlighting Republican support for abortion bans.
The Democratic governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, won a second term after repeatedly criticizing his Republican opponent for initially backing a state abortion ban that contains no exceptions for rape or incest.
In Virginia, Democrats won control of both chambers after massive advertising focused on abortion. In Pennsylvania, Democrats won a seat on the State Supreme Court in a race that also saw a flurry of abortion-related ads.
And in Ohio, a ballot measure establishing a right to abortion in the State Constitution won by a double-digit margin.
“STRIKING DEMONSTRATION”
Commentators saw it as a “striking demonstration of support” for abortion rights in a conservative state that Donald J. Trump won twice by convincing margins.
However, not all went the Democrats’ way. Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump congratulated Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves on his victory. He said the Republican “surged to a win” on Tuesday over Democratic candidate Brandon Presley with his endorsement.
That victory didn’t impress Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is competing against Trump for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. He called Trump “political and electoral poison” on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Since 2018, Republicans who have sold their soul to Trump have overwhelmingly lost.”
Additionally, Matt Dugan, the Democratic candidate running for district attorney in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, lost his election bid despite receiving nearly $2 million of funding from billionaire George Soros, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper reported.
Dugan first challenged incumbent District Attorney Stephen Zappala in the county’s May primary election, beating Zappala by 10 points. He had received $700,000 in funding from the Soros-funded Pennsylvania Justice and Public Safety Political Action Committee (PAC), the Post-Gazette reported.
The PAC donated an additional $1.1 million to Dugan’s campaign between June and October. Still, Zappala managed to beat the Democratic challenger by 3 points despite his significant loss just months earlier, Worthy News learned.
However, it raised questions about the involvement of Soros, who already reigned as the biggest donor of the midterms, according to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan platform tracking money in politics.
MADSIVE SPENDING
The Democratic politics supporting Soros, 92, personally donated $170 million during the 2022 midterms to Democratic candidates and campaigns, according to several data.
On top of that, he spread the additional donation through the Open Society Policy Center – a nonprofit that falls under the Soros-funded Open Society Foundations network, according to a copy of its 2021 tax filing.
The Open Society Policy Center also spent $138 million on advocacy groups and causes in 2020. Two of Soros’ children sit on its board, the tax filings and its website show.
The donations bring Soros’ contributions to political campaigns and causes from January 2020 to January 2023 to at least half a billion dollars. Most of it was steered through what critics called “dark money nonprofit groups” and primarily toward political causes aligned with the Democratic Party.
Last year, the second, third, fourth, and fifth biggest donors gave to Republicans, funding tracker Open Secrets showed. Together, Richard Uihlein, Kenneth Griffin, Jeffrey Yass, and Timothy Mellon gave about $237 million between January 2021 and November 2022.
The Democratic giver, cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces jail for the rest of his life on fraud charges, comes in at number 6, Open Secrets showed.
Yet encouraged by the overall win of heavily funded pro-abortion candidates, Democrats have launched plans to use referendums, like the pro-abortion one that passed in Ohio, as a way to energize their base in 2024.
MORE MEASURES
Efforts are underway to get such measures on the ballot in swing states, including Arizona, Florida, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, Worthy News learned.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign already released an early ad highlighting Trump’s support for overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court enabling nationwide abortions.
Last year, the Supreme Court, packed by Trump-backed conservatives, overturned the ruling.
After the Supreme Court decided to end a constitutional right to an abortion, several states moved to bar the procedure earlier in pregnancy or to ban it outright. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced legislation for a federal 15-week ban, though the bill is unlikely to pass in the current Congress.
Under the standard set by Roe v. Wade and later reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey — both of which the Supreme Court overturned — abortions were protected until a fetus was viable, usually at 22 to 24 weeks gestation. As much as about half of states still follow that standard.
The overwhelming majority of abortions in the United States occur in the first trimester, but 36,000 abortions occurred after 14 weeks of gestation in 2019, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Critics wonder whether making abortion the number one issue in the upcoming presidential elections will help Biden, who had been polling behind Trump despite his legal challenges. Yet, friends and foes agree that Tuesday’s election results highlighted that Trump still faces challenges to impress conservative voters on his way to the White House.
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