Mitch Perry
California Gov. Jerry Brown believes the deciding factor for Democratic candidates should be intelligence, suggesting that as a litmus test, abortion would not be helpful nationwide.
“The litmus test should be intelligence, caring about, as Harry Truman or Roosevelt used to call it, the common man,” Brown NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet The Press over the weekend. “We’re not going to get everybody on board. And I’m sorry but running in San Francisco is not like running in Tulare County or Modoc, California, much less Mobile, Alabama.”
As a strong supporter of abortion rights, Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor is somewhat ambiguous on this growing debate.
“I love the Democratic Party!” she exclaimed Tuesday after a visit to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training facility. “But women’s health issues and the ability to control our own bodies is one of a whole host of issues, and I don’t think in America and in any political party you can say there’s a litmus test for anything, but people certainly have the right to say that this is important to me and judge those candidates based on their position.”
Discussion of a litmus test began after Ben Ray Lujan, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), recently told The Hill that the Party will not withhold funding from candidates who do not support abortion rights, as Democrats attempt to win back the House in next year’s midterms.
Lujan’s comments have ignited a firestorm from abortion rights supporters.
“Women’s health & rights are nonnegotiable — incl. access to safe, legal abortion,” Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards tweeted last week. “We’ll hold any politician who says otherwise accountable.”
Former DNC Chair Howard Dean expressed similar outrage, tweeting: “I’m afraid I’ll be with holding support for the DCCC if this is true.”
“The Democratic Party is supposed to be the party of equality, freedom and justice. You cannot deny those guarantees to women and call yourself a Democrat as far as I’m concerned,” wrote Susan Smith, chair of the Florida Democratic Progressive Caucus. “If the DCCC and DSCC and DNC don’t make that clear, then don’t expect us to support your anti-choice candidates or your organizations.”
According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, three-quarters of Democrats (75 percent) support abortion rights. Overall, 57 percent of Americans support a woman’s right to choose an abortion, which is “as high as it has been in two decades of polling,” Pew reports.
Democrats need to win 24 seats in the 2018 congressional midterm to retake the U.S. House. Some areas where they may be able to win over GOP seats are in socially conservative Southern states. When asked if she could find herself supporting a pro-life Democrat in a congressional contest next year, Castor couldn’t answer that without other factors to consider.
“It would really depend on that candidate and their background and their position on a whole host of issues,” she said.
