After several Supreme Court decisions rattled social conservatives in June, the Trump campaign is broadening its “culture war” pitch to include fights over American history and statues along with the fight against abortion.
During a Tuesday call hosted by Pro-Life Voices for Trump, campaign spokeswoman Mercedes Schlapp said that the decision in June Medical Services v. Russo was a “huge disappointment” to the anti-abortion movement. The decision, in which Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal wing of the court to overturn a Louisiana law that had restricted abortion access, was widely seen as a blow to the anti-abortion cause.
“Instead of valuing fundamental democratic principles, we’ve seen these unelected justices that have intruded on the sovereignty of state governments by imposing their own policy preferences,” Schlapp said, adding that the loss should be an effective case for giving President Trump a second term.
“We know that the president will continue to appoint judges who respect and uphold the Constitution instead of legislating from the bench,” she said.
The sentiment is widely echoed among people involved with the Trump campaign. Following the June Medical Services decision, the controversial priest Frank Pavone, who serves as Pro-Life Voices for Trump co-chair, said that since the president’s two Supreme Court nominees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, voted “the right way,” social conservatives should cheer him on as an effective defender of life.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion advocacy group the Susan B. Anthony List, agreed, noting on Twitter that Gorsuch’s and Kavanaugh’s votes signal that the next Supreme Court justice appointed will determine definitively whether conservatives or liberals control the court.
Chris Sprowls, a Florida state representative who participated in the Tuesday call, agreed with those theories, adding that, unless Trump is reelected, conservatives will lose their chances to win future court cases.
“One of the biggest pillars of his reelection hinges upon the United States Supreme Court — and that’s why it’s so critical that we do everything we can to reelect him in November,” Sprowls said, noting that it is more than likely that there will be at least one vacancy on the court in the next four years.
But the “culture war” arm of the campaign, however, is not allowing itself to focus solely on the abortion issue. Schlapp told supporters that the anti-abortion issue is part of a larger culture war that conservatives should be focusing on when pitching Trump’s support for life. She cited, in particular, Trump’s “inspirational” Friday speech at Mount Rushmore in which he said that every life “born and unborn” is valuable.
Schlapp said that a defense of statues, monuments, and America’s history is also important to making the case for Trump. These issues, she said, in addition to the president’s opposition to abortion, show the president as a stark alternative to former Vice President Joe Biden.
“This is all part of the culture of life,” she said. “We want to protect life. We don’t want to tear it down. I think those are the two areas that are a big contrast point with Joe Biden.”
Contrasting Trump’s record on abortion with Biden’s own record has been a goal for the Trump campaign, especially as the Supreme Court is poised to make a decision on a case concerning the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order of nuns which Trump has defended in speeches and in a series of executive orders.
The case, which concerns a lawsuit from the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey against the Trump administration, will determine whether or not the Little Sisters will be exempt from an Obama-era mandate, which would force them to offer contraception in their healthcare plans. Trump exempted the group from the mandate in a 2017 executive order, provoking the lawsuit.
Trump often references the Little Sisters when speaking about his defense of the unborn and religious liberty, most notably at his in-person appearance at the 2020 March for Life. Tim Huelskamp, an adviser to the Catholics for Trump coalition, said that Trump’s stance on the group is a winning issue for the president, particularly because it was during Biden’s tenure that the mandate was first imposed.
Huelskamp characterized Biden’s history with the Little Sisters as “not a good position” for the candidate to be in.
But, the Little Sisters case is not decided yet. Some legal conservatives are worried that the Trump strategy in appointing conservative justices has not been entirely effective — particularly after Gorsuch joined Roberts and the liberal wing of the court in Bostock v. Clayton County, a decision that extended employment protections to gay and transgender workers.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley emerged a strong critic of the strategy, decrying in a speech on the Senate floor attempts to win socially conservative voters with promises of favorable Supreme Court decisions.
“The bargain that has been offered to religious conservatives for years now is a bad one,” he said. “It’s time to reject it.”
