Abortion is a perennial issue for Republican campaigns around the country, but Republicans are attacking it with new urgency this year. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Elections GOP ground game focuses on abortion to turn out base The issue isn’t front and center on the airwaves, but Republican and anti-abortion groups have made the issue a major part of their ground game.

Republicans desperate to juice base turnout in a brutal election cycle are weaponizing abortion against incumbent Democratic senators in more than a half-dozen races that could determine control of the chamber.

The issue is getting a fraction of the attention of President Donald Trump, health care and immigration. But Republican and anti-abortion groups have made it a major part of their ground game: Organizers for Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, ran a series of events in red states in August and early September and have had more than 500 canvassers knock on doors at more than 1.6 million homes in Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia and North Dakota.


Abortion is a perennial issue for Republican campaigns around the country, but Republicans are attacking it with new urgency this year as they face a potentially disastrous enthusiasm gap in the fall elections. For the first time in several midterms, the GOP is worried its base won’t turn out to vote, and abortion is a powerful motivator for the conservatives who could put Republican Senate candidates over the top in key states.

Specifically, Republicans are tagging Democratic incumbents as supporters of late-term abortion and taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Even as national Democrats organize like never before around threats to abortion rights and Trump's judicial picks, Republicans looking at the narrow, more conservative Senate map see a different picture that they believe tilts toward them on this key issue.

"It is very clear that there is a sizable pro-life base that can deliver victories on the margins," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony List.

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Trump’s pledge to appoint anti-abortion judges reinforced the Republican coalition in 2016 despite worries that core voters could stay home that year, after he won the nomination. And Dannenfelser said there is a noticeable difference in enthusiasm among anti-abortion voters compared with 2012, when the red-state Democratic senators were last on the ballot.

“When they got elected six years ago, it wasn't so volatile because, frankly, the pro-life movement wasn't as plugged in as it is right now,” Dannenfelser said. “It's a different environment than it was six years ago.”

In particular, Republicans think the issue could give them a significant boost in West Virginia, North Dakota, Indiana and Missouri — red states that voted for Trump but have Democratic senators — as well as Tennessee. Earlier this week, the Tennessee Republican Party posted video of former Gov. Phil Bredesen expressing support for Planned Parenthood, and criticized him as out of touch with the state. Last month, Susan B. Anthony List and the NRSC both aired TV ads attacking Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia over a vote against defunding Planned Parenthood.

In North Dakota, the NRSC also ran digital ads attacking Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for appearing to high-five Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after a vote against a 20-week abortion ban (Politifact ruled the attack false). They also ran a TV ad criticizing Heitkamp for the vote in August.

Earlier this month, Rep. Kevin Cramer, Heitkamp’s opponent, released an ad featuring his two daughters, one of whom is pregnant, criticizing Heitkamp for her vote against the 20-week abortion ban.

Shane Goettle, the RNC committeeman in North Dakota, called it a “powerful and potent” message for Cramer.

“It's certainly going to be motivating to get that base, Kevin Cramer's base, to the polls,” he said.

In particular, the attacks have focused on a failed vote for a 20-week abortion ban in January — Manchin and Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania were the only Democrats to vote in favor of the measure — and a vote last month to defund Planned Parenthood, which every Senate Democrat opposed.

Democrats argue that Republicans hoping to motivate voters on abortion are misreading an electorate that is energized around issues including abortion rights and access to reproductive services, even in red states.

Planned Parenthood earlier this month announced a $20 million investment in the midterms, its largest ever, including a focus on states like Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where there are Senate and gubernatorial races on the ballot. The group said it will reach 4.5 million voters and knock on 3 million doors.

And while conservatives have long considered the judiciary to be an important factor in their votes, progressives are taking the courts — and in particular the potential shift in the balance of power around Roe v. Wade — more seriously than ever before.

Democrats also point to special elections in Alabama and Pennsylvania’s 18th District, where Democratic Sen. Doug Jones and Rep. Conor Lamb, respectively, won in heavily Republican territory despite attacks against them on the issue of abortion.

“I think in tightly contested races, one of the things that absolutely has to happen for candidates that do support women's ability to make their own health care decisions is the base is going to have to turn out in significant numbers,” said Kevin Griffis, vice president for communications at Planned Parenthood.

“If we have our opponents going in and talking about how their candidates are going to restrict access and roll back constitutional right to safe and legal abortion, that's going to backfire on them and going to wind up doing more to continue to stoke our base, which is already energized in a really unprecedented and historic way,” Griffis said.

