Attacks on churches and crisis pregnancy centers have increased since the U.S. Supreme Court found Roe v. Wade unconstitutional. The latest was the attack on a Catholic church in Overland Park, Kan. Now a national organization has launched an ad campaign targeting Catholic politicians who have remained silent or even pushed for abortion.
CatholicVote aims to call out self-proclaimed Catholics for not being in line with Catholic teaching. “That’s one area we hope to highlight, is that their silence in the face of rampant violence nationwide signals something deeper and far more worrisome about the place of Catholic candidates inside the Democratic Party,” President Brian Burch says.
The midterm ad campaign will see between $2.5 and $3 million in ad spending and target 10 to 15 House races and several key Senate races in the midterm election. The objective to help establish faithful Catholic politicians in government. Burch sees a political shift happening that could put an end to the Catholic Democrat typified by politicians who profess the faith but hold vastly different views on moral issues than the church.
President Joe Biden, whose views on abortion have shifted dramatically to align with the platform of his party, is only the second Catholic to be elected to the presidency. According to Burch, Biden represents the last of a certain type of Catholic Democrat. “This is a big historical shift; obviously for half a century,” he said. “The Democratic Party was home of the Catholic vote, Catholic voters from immigrant class to unions to working class.”
Several Catholic politicians could determine the makeup of the next Congress. J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio, converted to Catholicism in 2019. Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters was raised Catholic, Adam Laxalt — who would be the first Catholic senator from Nevada if he defeats Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has proposed a slate of pro-worker, pro-natalist policies in recent years.
If those Republicans win in November, “You’re going to have a kind of Catholic bloc that’s very different than the Catholic bloc that existed over the last 50 years,” Burch said. Add in the signs of Hispanic and Latino voters — many of whom are Catholic — are moving toward the Republican Party, and Burch sees Catholics at the center of a new political era.
A key animating issue for Catholic and evangelical Christians’ political advocacy has long been the pro-life movement, and with Roe v. Wade being overturned, abortion will continue to be a crucial issue as Democrats push for federal abortion protections and Republicans consider a nationwide ban.
–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice