NEW YORK — Democrats in New York, following significant losses two years ago, are deploying a now-familiar playbook in half a dozen battleground House races: Accuse Republicans of opposing abortion rights, an approach that has worked in tough races across the country.
The party is reviving those anti-abortion attacks in New York and say, this time, they have proof of their claims: the incumbents’ voting records. They are painting first-term GOP representatives as hypocrites in a bevy of blistering attacks.
Josh Riley launched a digital ad attacking Rep. Marc Molinaro over the issue. Laura Gillen penned an opinion piece focusing on how she believes her opponent, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, would upend “women’s freedoms.” And Rep. Pat Ryan recently released a TV spot assailing his challenger, Alison Esposito, for applauding the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion access remains a potent motivator, especially for suburban women, as near-total bans are enacted around the country two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Battleground Democrats have clung to the issue to boost their chances while working to counter GOP attacks on their handling of the economy, public safety and border security. The stakes are high in New York, where six purple districts could help determine which party controls the House next year.
“In the Republican-held swing seats, every sitting Congress member has an anti-abortion record,” said Democratic consultant Alyssa Cass, who worked for Ryan last cycle and is involved in the campaign to pass the New York Equal Rights Amendment this fall. “While they can mouth the language of moderation, their voting records and party allegiance say the exact opposite, and it is the job of every Democratic campaign and spender to loudly call bullshit.”
Democrats’ case this cycle will be boosted by a New York Equal Rights Amendment poised to be on the ballot in November and Kamala Harris’ position at the top of their ticket.
And their argument that battleground Republicans’ recent votes are a slippery slope to a nationwide ban on abortion reveals Democrats’ strategy on the lightning rod issue in a historically blue state where reproductive rights are protected.
“The biggest difference is that Mark Molinaro now has a voting record in Congress, and that voting record is really, really bad for upstate New Yorkers,” Riley said in an interview, citing the vulnerable Republican’s vote “to restrict access to abortion for veterans and women in the military who have put their lives on the line to defend our freedom.”
The Democratic challenger was referencing a defense funding bill provision that would reverse Pentagon policy on reimbursing troops for travel to receive abortions, a practice that Republicans say violates a ban on the use of federal funds for abortions.
Republicans, meanwhile, accuse Democrats of lies, distortion and desperation, with all six GOP contenders in the target districts, including Molinaro and Rep. Mike Lawler, reiterating their opposition to a nationwide ban on abortion.
Republicans have also argued that Democrats are overplaying their hand. They predict the GOP will only grow its map if their opponents waste their resources — and voters’ time — with the wrong priorities.
“I don’t hear abortion at all,” Esposito, a former NYPD officer challenging frontliner Ryan in the Hudson Valley, said in an interview of interactions with voters. “That’s just something the left is screaming as a talking point, and really, it’s codified in New York state, so it’s a moot talking point.”
Ryan, a combat veteran, has continued to yoke reproductive freedom to rights generally under threat by what he calls an “anti-freedom MAGA agenda.”
Similarly, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democrat-aligned House Majority Forward PAC have put out ads attacking Republicans on access by referencing their time in Congress.
“D’Esposito’s record is clear,” Gillen wrote in a Long Island news outlet, citing among other criticisms his vote to “fund misleading so-called ‘crisis pregnancy centers,’ which peddle dangerous misinformation about reproductive health care to women.”
Like the provision impacting how troops access abortions, Republicans’ votes to keep states from restricting the use of federal funds for crisis pregnancy centers and to subject doctors who perform abortions to criminal penalties are now under scrutiny. Democratic challenger Mondaire Jones made the latter the focus of his recent news conference condemning Lawler.
GOP members have explained their votes this way: Reimbursing troops’ travel for abortions violates the Hyde Amendment prohibiting federal funds for being used for the procedure, ensuring federal funding for crisis pregnancy center preserves choices for pregnant women and Democrats are leaving out that the bill to penalize doctors is meant to protect babies born alive after botched abortions.
“Healthcare decisions should be between a woman and her doctor,” Molinaro said recently in pushing back against an abortion-themed attack ad as full of falsehoods.
Democrats have noted that polling shows voters are still livid about the overturning of Roe. They point to New York Republicans’ support of party leaders like Speaker Johnson and vice presidential nominee JD Vance — vocal nationwide abortion ban proponents — as evidence they’re not as politically moderate as they claim to be. And they’ve blasted Lawler for appearing at two crisis pregnancy center events, Molinaro for contributing financially to one as a local official and both lawmakers for hosting Florida Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), the co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, in their districts.
Molinaro and Lawler, who have said they’re “personally pro-life,” have both stressed their support for in vitro fertilization as one critical area where they’ve defied their fellow Republicans.
Lawler introduced new legislation earlier this month offering tax credits for IVF expenses, and Molinaro has since signed on as a co-sponsor. Additionally, Molinaro was the first in his party, with Lawler as the second, to sign on to a Democrat-led bill to protect IVF federally.
Both have told POLITICO repeatedly that they would reject a nationwide ban on abortion.
“In New York, abortion is not at risk of going away,” Lawler said in an interview. “The law is set in New York and I think Democrats want to try to make it an issue when in fact, it’s not going anywhere. So I think what is clear and where there is broad consensus is on the issue of IVF.”
Jones alleged Lawler shouldn’t be trusted to vote against a nationwide ban any more than Donald Trump could be trusted not to sign one into law.
“He saw how damaging the situation in Alabama was for Republicans and sought to get ahead of it by introducing legislation that would not truly protect IVF,” Jones said in an interview. “And, of course, he’s the guy who helped elect Donald Trump, who then put justices on the Supreme Court who ended Roe v. Wade.”
D’Esposito, the target of a recent House Majority Forward ad alleging he would vote for a “total abortion ban,” has sought to turn Democrats’ argument on its head.
“The only untrustworthy actors on the topic of abortion,” he said, “are Democrats who continuously push the fake narrative that House Republicans are moving to ban abortion.”
