What We Learned on Election Night – 2013
ANALYSIS:
In a deeply blue state, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by over 700,000, Chris Christie, the pro-life Republican Governor who defunded Planned Parenthood in 2011, won re-election by what the New York Times calls a “crushing margin.” Who made up that margin? The very people Planned Parenthood claims pro-life leaders are waging a war against: women.
Christie won the women vote by a 15 percent margin.
But he also won the Hispanic vote and, according to the New York Times, “made impressive inroads among younger voters and blacks—groups that Republicans nationally have struggled to attract.” Even his support among Democrats has grown. In 2009, he had 8 percent of the Democratic vote. Yesterday, he received 32 percent of it.
Gov. Christie’s re-election makes one thing clear: Americans gravitate toward common-sense, pro-life leaders.
Though some would like us to believe that a Planned Parenthood endorsement is what secures the women vote, Gov. Christie’s election demonstrates how little Planned Parenthood really matters to a majority of New Jersey women.
In a landslide, women voted for a pro-life Republican who took state funding away from the abortion leader.
Furthermore, if a pro-life Republican can make inroads with Democrats, what’s to stop a Democrat from taking a pro-life stance? Apparently, standing against Planned Parenthood does not necessarily mean losing ground with Democrats.
Despite everything we are told, being proudly and practically pro-life does not mean losing elections.
Nevertheless, as Gov. Christie told his fellow Republicans, “We don’t just show up in the places we’re comfortable, we show up in the places we’re uncomfortable.”
Even in Virginia, where a pro-choice Democrat won the gubernatorial race, national experts agree that Ken Cuccinelli, the pro-life Attorney General of Virginia, would have won if it had not been for the third party Libertarian candidate who garnered 7 percent of the vote.
Once again, practical, pro-life policies are not what lose elections and Republicans, as well as Democrats, have every reason to follow Gov. Christie’s pro-life model.
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Michael Gonidakis
President
Ohio Right to Life
88 East Broad Street, Suite 620
Columbus, Ohio 43215
614/547-0099 ext. 301
