July 7, 2016

Republican Politicians Can Try to Run From Donald Trump, But This Pro-Choice Group Won’t Let Them

A bunch of brutal new ads should have GOP senators panicking.

Andy Martin Jr./ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


With two weeks to go before Donald Trump takes the stage at the Republican National Convention, an abortion rights group is launching a campaign linking anti-abortion GOP senators to the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.

NARAL Pro-Choice America kicked off its #TrumpSquadGoals campaign on Thursday, targeting eight incumbent Republican senators up for reelection this year: Richard Burr (N.C.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Pat Toomey (Pa.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), and John McCain (Ariz.). The campaign also includes Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada, a three-term congressman competing for the seat left open by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s upcoming retirement.

Politico reports that NARAL will run Facebook and Twitter advertisements in the home state of each lawmaker and “will include an animated gif from the movie ‘Zoolander’ with one of the targeted Republicans photoshopped into a partying group that includes Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”

Many of the senators in the ads have a rocky history with Trump; they have either publicly spoken out against him, issued tepid endorsements, or remained silent on his status as the GOP’s presumptive nominee. All have said they will not attend this year’s Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to begin on July 18 in Cleveland.

“These candidates may be able to run from Cleveland but they can’t hide from their record,” NARAL Pro-Choice America’s chief strategist Sasha Bruce said in a press release announcing the campaign. “Just like Trump, these candidates want to punish women by banning abortion, reducing access to health services and rolling back decades’ worth of progress.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate