WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Republican National Committee (RNC) elected pro-life proponent Reince Priebus as Chairman, charged with laying the groundwork for Republican victory against a pro-abortion President in 2012.
The SBA List co-sponsored the 2011 RNC Chairman’s Debate held on January 3 along with Americans for Tax Reform and The Daily Caller. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, was tasked with representing social issues and questioned the candidates on life and marriage.
“During the race all five candidates affirmed without hesitation their commitment to advancing the right to life,” said Dannenfelser. “If the candidates’ convictions go this deep, the grassroots must be overwhelmingly so. This point was proven after the 2010 mid-term elections. 80 out of 87 new Republican House members are solidly pro-life, and life was the pivotal issue in the defeat of pro-life Democrats who didn’t live up to the label.
“The Republican Party is listening. The pro-life grassroots made it clear they expect the RNC chairman to be committed both in principle and in operation to promoting the pro-life agenda. Chairman Priebus made this commitment well-known. We look forward to working with him to leverage that message.
“This signal should not be lost on the potential Republican presidential nominees, especially those who have floated a ‘truce’ on social issues. The GOP has an unshakeable pro-life core. The only truce necessary is on truces themselves.”
SBA List conducted pre-debate Skype interviews with all five candidates along with American Principles Project (APP) Board Member and National Organization for Marriage (NOM) Chair Maggie Gallagher in the weeks leading up to the debate. SBA List and like-minded groups promoted the debate clips and Skype interviews to a 500,000-activist grassroots network, encouraging them to contact the RNC voting members in their respective state to encourage them to vote for a pro-life candidate.
In a Skype interview conducted by Marjorie Dannenfelser and Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, Chairman Reince Priebus said, “I support our Republican platform which I think is rock solid on the issue of abortion. I think that social issues are the fabric of our society and for us to not be involved with those issues causes us to turn our back on what I think is the foundation of America. I believe if I was elected Chair of the RNC that would be something I would have an even bigger obligation to uphold the position I have on abortion.”
An embeddable video and transcript of the interview is available at: https://sbaprolife.org/suzy-b-blog/rnc-chairman-candidate-reince-priebus-expresses-pro-life-positions-sba-interview
Clips from the January 3 debate and pre-debate Skype interviews are available here: https://sbaprolife.org/RNCChair
The Susan B. Anthony List spent $11 million during the 2010 midterm election cycle. Overall, the SBA List was involved in 90 races including 62 wins and 28 losses. Successes included: defeating 15 of 20 so-called “pro-life” Democrats who voted for abortion funding in the health care reform bill; increasing the number of pro-life women in the House by 70 percent; filling the void of pro-life women in the U.S. Senate and increasing the number of pro-life women governors from one to four.
SBA List Communications Director Kerry Brown is out of the office. For more information, please contact Billy Valentine at (202) 223-8073, (620) 794-2560 or [email protected]
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SBA Pro-Life America's mission is to end abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders. Your secure gift today will help to advance a culture of life and protect unborn children and their mothers from abortion.
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