On Monday, the day before the primary, Trump secured an endorsement from the political advocacy group CatholicVote. Brian Burch, the group’s president, announced that the group “will begin working in upcoming primary states, together with the top swing states to register, educate, motivate, and turn out every Catholic voter to back Trump — and defeat Joe Biden.”
“We had four years to watch him,” Burch added, speaking of Trump. “And he delivered. From executive orders, reform on regulations touching abortion, religious liberty, conscience, faith, and families — to wages, jobs, administration appointments, and of course, judges and the Supreme Court.”
Pro-life positioning of the candidates
Neither Trump’s nor Haley’s campaigns have focused much on the issue of abortion, but both have expressed pro-life sentiments in different ways.
In a Fox News town hall on Jan. 10, Trump did not get into specifics about what pro-life policies he would support in a second administration, but he told a pro-life voter that “we’re going to get something that people want, that people like.”
The former president also said he was “proud” to have nominated three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. The overturning of Roe v. Wade allowed states to further restrict or outlaw abortion.
During a recent GOP presidential debate, Haley stated that Americans should “find consensus” on the issue of abortion and claimed that a national 15-week ban would be implausible to get passed through Congress.
“Let’s agree on how we can ban late-term abortions, let’s make sure we encourage adoptions and good quality adoptions, and let’s make sure we make contraception accessible, let’s make sure that none of these state laws puts a woman in jail or gives her the death penalty for getting an abortion,” Haley said. “Let’s focus on how to save as many babies as we can and support as many moms as we can and stop the judgment, we don’t need to divide America on this issue anymore.”
The next Republican contests will be the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Island caucuses on Feb. 8. The South Carolina primary will be held on Feb. 24 and the Michigan primary on Feb. 27. Idaho and Michigan caucuses will be held on March 2; the Washington, D.C., primary will be held on March 1–3, and the North Dakota caucus will take place on March 4.
There will be 16 contests on Super Tuesday, which is on March 5: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.
Tyler Arnold is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency, based in EWTN News’ Washington Bureau. He previously worked at The Center Square and has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative, and The Federalist.
