Democrats could have won big in the Omaha mayoral race. Instead, they offered their candidate as a sort of living sacrifice to the abortion lobby, sealing a blood oath to never again compromise their ideological purity no matter the political cost.
After being cast aside by his party for his anti-abortion views, Democrat Heath Mello fell short by six points to incumbent Republican Mayor Jean Stothert. It was the cost of fealty and, of course, it wasn’t necessary.
Until recently, Mello had a real chance of making a rare Democrat victory in deep red Nebraska. During the non-partisan mayoral primary and before the race gained national attention, Mello lost to Stothert by just 1,346 ballots. Things looked promising for the little-known candidate until his voting record started a political street fight inside the DNC.
When Sen. Bernie Sanders and DNC Chairman Tom Perez overlooked Mello’s stance on the issue and endorsed the candidate, the abortion lobby pounced. Deep-pocketed donors like NARAL Pro-Choice America demanded that the DNC back down, slamming the support of Mello as “not only disappointing” but also “politically stupid.”
Eventually Perez backed down and turned on Mello. “Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” Perez wrote in a statement. “That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”
Lambasted nationally and locally on the Left, Mello tried to downplay concerns. He even promised “never to do anything to restrict access to reproductive healthcare.” And while that pledge did little to appease angry pro-abortion Democrats, it more than riled up anti-abortion Republicans.
“That hurt him. The pro-life groups got engaged and were doing mailings to their members calling into question his commitment to being pro-life,” a Stothert campaign spokesman explained. “He did that to himself. We didn’t really have to do too much on that.”
And when Mello needed his base most, they stayed home. According to the Omaha World-Herald, the Democrat was plagued by low turnout even in districts that he easily carried.
If Mello would’ve been allowed to focus on everyday issues rather than trying to comply with Democrat’s strict abortion orthodoxy, he could’ve won. Instead party brass thrust him into prominence only to abandon him just to prove their fealty to their deep-pocketed, pro-abortion donors.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
