Former President Trump blamed the abortion issue for Republicans underperforming expectations in the 2022 midterm elections.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday that many in the GOP handled the issue poorly, especially those who “firmly” insisted on no exceptions to bans on the procedure, including in instances of rape and incest.
Trump also blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for a super PAC he is aligned with pulling money out of key Senate races like New Hampshire and Arizona for candidates that the former president endorsed. Polls at the time showed the Republican candidates in these races trailing by wider margins than other key races.
“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the Midterms. I was 233-20! It was the “abortion issue,” poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters. Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again. Plus, Mitch stupid $’s!”
CIRCLE’s analysis of data and election results suggests that Gen Z voters and millennials were pivotal in deciding the most competitive elections. In the Arizona gubernatorial race, CIRCLE found 18 to 29 year-olds offered Democrat Katie Hobbs a net of 60,000 votes.
And in the Georgia Senate race, CIRCLE’s analysis found that Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) received a net of 116,000 votes from that demographic in the general election. Warnock placed first over Republican Herschel Walker during the November election by about 37,000 votes. The race later went to a runoff, which Warnock won.
“It’s a very secular cohort, and it’s a very progressive cohort on social issues. Very tolerant, firmly believe in LGBTQ rights, firmly believe that gender is not binary, very concerned about climate change, very concerned about gun violence, which they see as the issue of their generation.”
