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April 09, 2021 09:02 AM UTC

In Shift, CO Republican Leader Implies That Abortion Is an Election-Losing Issue for the Party

  • 11 Comments
  • by: Madeleine Schmidt

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown.

In a shift in tone following her election as chair of the Colorado Republican Party last month, Kristi Burton Brown, who built her political career on anti-abortion activism, signaled that opposition to abortion can no longer be part of Republicans’ strategy in Colorado if they want to win elections.

Brown’s remarks came during an interview last week with KHOW radio host Ross Kaminsky, who asked how Brown reconciles her social conservatism in a state that continues to shift to the left:

“When you talk about the pro-life issue, I’ll never apologize for wanting to protect and defend every child. That is absolutely what I believe; it’s in our platform as Republicans. However, we have to talk about the issues that are going to win us majorities. Any issue I care about, any issue any Republican across the board cares about, whether it’s the same or whether it’s 80 percent the same as each other and 20 percent a little different, if we do not win seats and majorities and actually get candidates elected, nothing we care about matters. So we have to win, we have to get back seats. Especially as chairman of the state party, that is my goal, not to push one particular issue but to actually win.” (Emphasis added.)

It’s a notable statement from Brown, whose unrelenting anti-abortion advocacy has been a hallmark of her political career, including during her tenure as vice-chair of the Colorado GOP.

Brown first gained notoriety in the Colorado political world by sponsoring Colorado’s first fetal personhood amendment in 2008 when she was just 20 years old, which would have made abortion illegal in Colorado by defining life as beginning at conception.

Brown later became a constitutional law attorney, doing pro-bono work for various anti-abortion causes and while continuing to back other personhood campaigns.

RELATEDLong-Time Anti-Abortion Activist Kristi Burton Brown Could Be Next CO GOP Leader.

Colorado voters across the political spectrum have shown a clear lack of support for anti-abortion policies, as evidenced by their rejection of four abortion bans at the ballot box over the past dozen years.

Most recently, voters rejected Proposition 115, which would have banned abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy. A county-level analysis of vote totals shows that even Trump voters played a role in the measure’s defeat.

Brown did not return an email seeking to know if the defeat of Prop. 115, for which she was a vocal advocate as vice-chair of the Colorado GOP, leads her to believe that Republicans can’t win seats while supporting anti-abortion policies.

Despite Brown’s apparent attempt to put distance between the Colorado GOP and political fights over abortion rights, many Colorado Republicans have been digging in their heels.

For example, Republican state lawmakers recently pushed two pieces of anti-abortion legislation, one bill that would have banned abortion under essentially any circumstances and another that would have created a public registry with sensitive and detailed information about patients who had abortions.

And then there’s Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who has been increasingly vocal in her opposition to abortion, including introducing a bill within her first week in office to defund Planned Parenthood.

Brown praised Boebert as a shining example of the types of candidates the party should run moving forward.

“Perfect representation of her district, built her life there, has a story there, the people in her district identify with her and her life,” Brown told Kaminsky referring to Boebert, who’d endorsed Brown in her race to become Colorado’s Republican Party chair. “And she got out there, did old-fashioned campaigning, and some pretty awesome modern twists to how she ran her campaign, and you see her walk away with a big win.”

Brown beat out former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who was seen as representative of the Republican establishment, in the battle for control of the party.

Comments

11 thoughts on “In Shift, CO Republican Leader Implies That Abortion Is an Election-Losing Issue for the Party

  1. Just read the headline, not the post yet.

    But as far as her implying abortion being a losing issue.  She should know.  She has first hand experience with that.

  2. This leaves me wondering if Brown meant that they should stop talking about abortion as a plank in order to get themselves elected (so they can pursue the agenda later once elected); or if she meant they should drop abortion as an agenda issue entirely?

    Meanwhile, I'd bet a fair sum that Boebert's brand of pro-life activism is of the late-to-the-party "abortion for me not for thee" style.  I would not be surprised if a fair segment of her social circle has Planned Parenthood on speed dial.

  3. LOL

    Not even as a get-out-the-GOPer-voter ballot initiative for 2022???? . . .

    . . . If you believe that, I’ve got tickets for a table at the soon-to-be-scheduled Ttump 2021 Inaugural Ball, I’ll sell you!

    Maybe shammy DOA “issues” only work if you’re running to get you elected chair of the nutters?

    (Can’t wait until K2B postulates that recalls might not be working . . .)

     

  4. Republicans abandoning their principles just to win elections ??? Next thing you'll tell me that there's gambling at this establishment !

      1. Ding ding ding we have a winner. 

        Sadly for the GOP, their #2 and #3 issues (overthrowing the government and gun laws based on Clint Eastwood movies) are equally unpopular with the general public. 

      2. I see ajb.  Your distinction does make sense.  If they approach each issue on their platform this way maybe they'll end up with nothing to talk about.

  5. Abortion is an election winning issue for KBB's version of the Republican Party ONLY IF citizens don't object to interference in their bedrooms by big government and big religion.

  6. KBB is signalling that the GOP should turn more to white insecurity about becoming a demographic minority as a boost to energy, fundraising, and election turnout. The Good Old Boys want to return to the Good Old Days– that’s why voter suppression, not policy or messaging, is the new GOP strategy. 
     

    KBB merely reflects the national Republican strategy. As far as abortion goes, it’s a losing issue for the GOP because of its basic moral hypocrisy; evangelical, Catholic, and other religious women access abortion at the same rates as all other women do.  Abortion by prescription is private and remote, and often doesn’t require walking a protester gauntlet at a clinic. So old anti-abortion tactics aren’t getting the headlines or fundraising that they once did. Folks care about other issues, like the economy, much more.

    The GOP’s culture war vitriol to prop up patriarchal mores is now mostly focused on bashing transgender children
     

     

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