Nearly every GOP candidate has been embroiled in some comically absurd scandal or another.
One candidate recently called women “crazy” for caring about abortion rights. Another’s compared himself to a falsely accused rapist…another doesn’t even appear to live in the state where he’s running.
Florida: Republican Rick Scott vs. Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
This is Scott’s first bid for reelection, and it comes just months after Florida’s Supreme Court allowed a six-week abortion ban to take effect, of which Scott…supported.
Meanwhile, his opponent, former Rep. Mucarsel-Powell (D), has been campaigning heavily on the issue, recently calling Florida’s ban “Rick Scott’s abortion ban” and warning that “if Scott is elected, he will not hesitate to pass a national abortion ban.”
Scott has also pushed the lie that Amendment 4—which would establish a right to abortion in the state and is currently polling between 46 and 69%—is just a sly Democratic scheme to mobilize women voters, rather than an effort to repeal an extreme abortion ban.
Montana: Republican Tim Sheehy vs. Democrat Jon Tester
[Sheehy’s] been caught lying about the circumstances under which he was shot in the arm, has sweepingly called Native American people drunks, and equated Tester’s criticisms…with being falsely accused of rape.
Sheehy has justified his unflinching support for abortion bans…in newly resurfaced audio from 2023, Sheehy railed against the supposed naivete of young women for supporting abortion rights: “That’s all they want to talk about. They are single-issue voters.”
It’s been two years since Montana defeated a deceptive anti-abortion measure back in 2022, and, like Florida, the state will also be voting on an abortion rights ballot measure in November.
Arizona: Republican Kari Lake vs. Democrat Ruben Gallego
In the last year, Lake has threatened mass gun violence to protect Trump, and she’s still denying the outcome of the 2020 election…on Arizona’s since-repealed, pre-Civil War, total abortion ban: She originally supported it, then vehemently opposed it, then dismissed concerns about the ban because Arizonans could still drive “three hours” to get an abortion in another state.
Like Florida and Montana, Arizona will vote on a ballot measure to enshrine a right to abortion in the state.
Ohio: Republican Bernie Moreno vs. Democrat Sherrod Brown
Has anyone checked on Bernie Moreno since over 1,200 Ohio women of all political affiliations wrote an open letter calling him “unfit” to represent them?
In the letter, the women point to Moreno’s insulting comments from September in which he characterized women as “a bit crazy” for caring about abortion rights.
Moreno also wrote women off as hysterical, “single-issue” voters…In February, Moreno suggested that abortion rights are unnecessary because women simply need help carrying heavy strollers around…And in September, building on Republicans’ increasing penchant for election denialism, Moreno lied that the abortion rights ballot measure that won in Ohio last year was only victorious because people cheated.
Texas: Republican Ted Cruz vs. Colin Allred
[Ted Cruz] fled his state during a natural disaster and then blamed…his child daughters. This is a man who boasted about his relationships with an anti-abortion extremist group linked to the assassination of an abortion provider in 2009.
Most recently, Cruz has said…literally nothing about abortion, the Texas Tribune reports. Across the board, Republican candidates have avoided touching the issue as much as possible given the deep electoral unpopularity of their laws. But it’s especially striking from Cruz, who’s centered his political career around banning abortion.
While Texas’ abortion ban has been torturing and likely killing Cruz’s constituents for over three years now, the incumbent senator can’t even bring himself to answer basic questions about his position on the issue to Texas newspapers.
Wisconsin: Republican Eric Hovde vs. Democrat Tammy Baldwin
Hovde, a businessman who largely put down roots in California, has previously, dangerously equated Plan B with abortion.
And when Hovde unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2012, he said he was “totally opposed to abortion,” and “oppose[s] legalized abortion”—“from conception,” which is an endorsement of fetal personhood. Hovde is currently endorsed by Right to Life Wisconsin, whose stated mission is to make abortion “legally unacceptable.”
Michigan: Republican Mike Rogers vs. Democrat Elissa Slotkin
In 2000, Rogers completed a candidate questionnaire for the Michigan Catholic Conference in which he backed an initiative known as the “Human Life Amendment,” which would ban abortion from the moment of conception and enshrine fetal personhood in the Constitution…In 2013, Rogers voted for a…national abortion ban.
Nevada: Republican Sam Brown vs. Democrat Jacky Rosen
Brown claimed that the Dobbs decision, which has resulted in about half of states enacting total or near-total abortion bans, actually “strengthened Nevada’s protections for abortion by confirming this choice is decided by states, not the federal government.”
Pennsylvania: Republican David McCormick vs. Democrat Bob Casey
McCormick appears to reside in another state, where his old hedge fund frequently worked against Pennsylvania’s biggest companies…He also allegedly threatened or retaliated against three former Bridgewater Associates employees who reported sexual harassment at the fund.
According to a 2023 book about rampant sexual misconduct at the company, McCormick tried to intimidate one woman into silence about her allegations of sexual harassment, warning her “that if she ever broke the agreement, she would be in litigation for the rest of her life.” And in a similar vein, his campaign has paid more than $600,000 to a Republican consulting firm that’s been sued for sexual harassment and retaliation.
McCormick’s policies are just as hostile to women. At a debate with Casey last week, confronted over his record of opposing abortion rights, McCormick said abortion is “something that we need to get past.”
