(Source: MIRS.news, Published 08/30/22) Across two different campaign-related accounts, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has tweeted about abortion at least 145 times since Roe v. Wade was overturned around 67 days ago.
MIRS recorded tweets made on the Team Whitmer and Gretchen Whitmer profiles from June 24, when the U.S. Supreme Court released its ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, until noon and 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, respectively. Not including Whitmer's formal governorship account, MIRS additionally found at least 57 tweets about roads, bridges, water infrastructure and transportation.
Sixty-four were also made about K-12 education.
The flurry of abortion-related tweets may make Whitmer look like a single-issue candidate, but it's also coming at a time when the future of abortion rights in Michigan is unclear. Polling shows it is motivating voters to dial into politics in 2022. Democrats, specifically, are re-engaging, and independents are, as well.
Whitmer isn't alone in picking up the concerns of voters. While not connected to the campaign, the Democratic Governors Association has dropped $6 million in advertising this month that highlights Whitmer's Republican opponent Tudor Dixon's pro-life-few-if-any-exceptions position on abortion.
Across the country, Democrats are spending nearly eight times as much as Republicans on advertisements centered on abortion since the Dobbs decision, noted political scientist Matt Grossmann from Michigan State University, citing a New York Times report.
In an interview with MIRS, Grossmann said that with many voters still becoming familiar with who Dixon is, Democrats are in a strong position to ensure that one of the few things the General Election population knows about the GOP nominee is "that she favors outlawing abortion with basically no exceptions."
". . . and I don't think that is a mistake, because not many people know much else, and so if that's one thing that they learn in the next few months – that will be good for Democrats," Grossmann said, adding that it's probably not very surprising for voters to learn that present-day Gov. Whitmer is pro-choice.
Meanwhile, Whitmer's pro-abortion "fight like hell" promise has maintained a stronghold on social media and was a recurring discussion point throughout the recent 2022 Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) nominating convention.
"Here you've got Tudor Dixon who is getting roasted on the airways on this issue, and she hasn't come up with any kind of good response and that's a problem . . . and that's going to apply in the governor's race and that's going to apply in a lot of other races as well," said Chris De Witt of Lansing-based public relations firm, De Witt Communications.
Republicans are concerned about the prominence of the abortion issue for voters across the board, DeWitt said.
A June 24-25 national MARIST Poll – taken immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade – found 56% of Americans strongly opposed the top Court's decision.
Eighty-nine percent of Democrats and 55% of independents said they were either concerned or very concerned about the impact of the Court's decision, according to the poll. Additionally, 62% of registered voters said the event would make them more likely to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, with 78% of Democrats, 54% of Republicans and 53% of independents described as being more motivated.
De Witt said he thinks Republicans are attempting to "come up with some way to counter that, while at the same time, not alienating the Right to Life folks…I mean, they're walking a very fine line and it's going to be a major issue for them."
In a poll issued for the Carl Marlinga campaign in MI-10 – where the long-time Macomb County judge is facing Republican John James, 60% of voters in the Macomb County-Rochester area district would back a candidate who supports "the right to choose."
According to Target Insyght founder Ed Sarpolus, who conducted the poll of 400 likely voters, the issue of abortion has evolved from an issue concerning personal morals into a rights issue in the post-Roe era.
In the past, Republicans have led the battle cry for safeguarding rights, whether it be regarding the threat of higher taxes, Second Amendment rights around firearms or the call for stronger religious freedoms. However, when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Roe decision after it had stood for nearly 50 years, "it's flipped."
"Republicans have owned the rights issue since Richard Nixon. This is the first time that it's flipped," Sarpolus told MIRS. "Republicans never really wanted the Supreme Court to do what they did. For two reasons: One, it takes away an issue. Two, it costs them money."
