The Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade cost the Republicans the Senate and almost lost them the house in 2020.
Trump delivered the repeal of Roe with his appointments of three conservative judges to the court while president. News pundits are noticing that Trump is surging ahead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and his stance on abortion may be part of the reason.
Mara Gay of the liberal New York Times says she feels Trump is demonstrating he’s more savvy on the abortion issue than DeSantis is with pro-life Republican voters.
In a recent town hall in New Hampshire, Trump shied away from the question of signing a national abortion ban. Meanwhile, DeSantis signed Florida legislation that would stop most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
Trump’s fence-sitting allowed DeSantis to go after him to be more specific on his abortion position. He also called Trump out for calling the Florida abortion legislation “harsh.”
The Roe decision is considered the “holy grail” by pro-life Republicans and Independent voters. Trump delivered that after 50 years of attempts to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision.
Forcing DeSantis on the defensive for his extreme position on the abortion issue is considered smart politics by many political pundits. As much as some Democrats don’t want to admit it, in some ways, Trump has political “killer instincts.”
DeSantis claims the reason for signing the legislation is that an unborn child with a detectable heartbeat should be protected. Iowa has enacted similar legislation signed by Governor Kim Reynolds.
Since the legislation was recently signed, it will take time to see if the Florida law helps or hurts DeSantis, who’s already trailing Trump in most polls by significant numbers. A lot is riding on whether other states follow Florida’s lead and sign similar bills.
Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, claims 68 percent of Republican primary voters support a ban on abortion after six weeks, with 27 percent opposing the ban.
