INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Embattled Senate candidate Richard Mourdock and national Republican officials said Thursday they were moving past the uproar over his comments that a pregnancy resulting from rape is God’s will and refocusing the nation’s political conversation on the presidential and congressional elections less than two weeks off.

But even as they tried to recover, Senate Democrats dropped $1.1 million on an ad keeping the spectacle alive and linking Mourdock’s comments to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.