The anti-abortion group that helped boost Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers to victory in 2010 is now working hard to ensure her demise.
Susan B. Anthony List is making phone calls, sending canvassers door-to-door and running Facebook ads in an effort to replace Ellmers with Rep. George Holding in North Carolina’s newly drawn 2nd Congressional District. There, Ellmers is fighting for her political life after dismantling an anti-abortion vote planned last year by SBA List and other conservative groups.
“We helped bring Renee Ellmers to Washington and now we want to send her home,” SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser told the Washington Examiner. “She was exactly the type of candidate our organization exists to support, both on the campaign trail and in Congress, but she failed us.”
Ellmers enraged SBA List and other anti-abortion activists by playing an instrumental role in upending what was to have been the anti-abortion movement’s finest hour last year.
At the nudging of anti-abortion leaders, the House planned to hold a vote on a mid-term abortion ban the same day as the annual March for Life. The simultaneous events were meant to send a strong message against abortion and highlight the movement’s momentum.
Despite having voted in the past for the 20-week abortion ban, Ellmers staged a surprise, last-minute rebellion against it, insisting that the measure be softened so rape victims exempted from the ban would face fewer obstacles in obtaining an abortion. After she objected to a requirement that rape victims report the crime to police, the bill was later rewritten to require the victim to seek counseling or medical care instead.
SBA List ultimately supported the revision. But the group remained deeply annoyed at how Ellmers had aired her complaints publicly and at the last minute.
Now, the group is trying to stage its own upheaval by spending about $50,000 on the race. It is sending more than 200 canvassers to knock on 12,500 doors by Tuesday and tell voters what Ellmers did. The group says that once voters are told of the incident, 66 percent of undecided voters and one-third of Ellmers supporters say they’re less likely to vote for her.
While there’s been little reliable polling in the primary race, SBA List told the Examiner that its door-to-door surveys indicate Ellmers has 9 percent support compared to 50 percent support for Holding. Support for a third candidate, physician and two-time Senate contender Greg Brannon, hovers around 15 percent, according to the group.
“The results point to a very difficult climb for her on election day, and the fact that she betrayed the pro-life movement is a major negative for her across the district,” said SBA List spokeswoman Mallory Quigley.
The group also is making phone calls and running ads on Facebook, which feature a photo of Ellmers and the text “Dump Ellmers: She Betrayed Pro-Lifers.”
In defense, the Ellmers campaign has pointed to her voting record, which still gets a perfect score from the National Right to Life.
Yet that’s not enough to ease SBA List’s frustration with Ellmers, after the group strongly supported her in 2010 as one of several anti-abortion women it was trying to get elected to Congress. Activists saw her in many ways as the ideal candidate, a nurse who could speak in medical terms about a procedure they see as brutal.
Even though Ellmers overall has voted as SBA List would like, helping to initially derail their top legislative priority was unforgiveable, Dannenfelser said.
“This legislation was and is our top legislative priority,” she said. “At that point there could not have been a more important moment of unity and strength for the movement, when she pulled the rug out from under us.”
