The people who wanted Roe overturned voted consistently Republican for 40 years to get that outcome.

When they didn't like a GOP candidate, they held their noses and voted anyway because getting a right-wing, anti-Roe majority was more important than likability.

They succeeded.
As an evangelical teen in 2008 who would be 18 by election day, I told my youth group that I didn't like John McCain as a candidate.

My youth leader told me to vote for him anyway because all that mattered is that he would put anti-abortion judges on the Supreme Court.
When I left evangelicalism and went to college (and became familiar with real Democrats/liberals/left-wingers, not caricatures), I was struck by how comparatively little emphasis there was on the Supreme Court and the connection between it and elections.
That's why I was quite certain on Nov. 8, 2016, that we were on the cusp of the end of Roe v. Wade (among other things).

Evangelicals moved past their initial dislike and went all in for Trump for the same reason that youth leader told me to vote for McCain in 2008: SCOTUS.
When @mattyglesias says there was no conservative long game, he's simply dead wrong. The long game was well-known, not only among the anti-abortion political class, but even among lay evangelicals.
Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban was part of that strategy. The Alliance Defending Freedom, an evangelical legal organization in DC, wrote the legislation after Trump's election and sent it to Mississippi lawmakers in 2018. Their goal: "To eradicate Roe."mississippifreepress.org/20042/to-rule-…
"We have a plan to make Roe irrelevant or completely reverse it,” Kevin Theriot, VP of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Life, told a crowd of anti-abortion activists on Jan. 20, 2018.

The plan was to get a state to pass their 15-week ban.
mississippifreepress.org/20042/to-rule-…
Soon after that 2018 rally, three Mississippi lawmakers (Sen. Joey Fillingane and Reps. Angela Hill and Becky Currie) introduced identical 15-week bans in the Legislature—bans authored by the ADF. Currie's copy made it to the governor's desk.mississippifreepress.org/20042/to-rule-…
In the Dobbs dissent, Justices Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor cite an interview I did with Sen. Fillingane in which he says that, after Trump won election and began changing the Supreme Court, they decided the time was ripe to start "testing the limits of Roe." a screenshot from the disse...
Don't let anyone fool you into thinking a Mississippi lawmaker "authored" the state's 15-week abortion ban at the center of Dobbs.

That was hatched in Washington, D.C. by the ADF, which says it wants "a Christian worldview in every area of law."mississippifreepress.org/20042/to-rule-…
Glance at the 15-week bans Mississippi lawmakers introduced in 2018:

Rep. Currie: billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2018…

Rep. Hill: billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2018…

Sen. Fillingane: billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2018…

The text is identical because they all got the bill from the same source: The ADF!
Anti-abortion evangelicals and Catholics held fast to the "Vote Straight GOP" mantra even when the candidate was nominally pro-Roe—e.g., Susan Collins.

Why? Because they knew she would usually vote for anti-abortion SCOTUS justices, including: Alito, Roberts, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh
I'm not saying anti-abortion evangelicals' consistent GOP voting is the sole factor. There are others (as @sarahkendzior notes).

These are my experiences as an #exvangelical of why anti-abortion evangelicals voted the way they did over the past 40 years.

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More from @ashtonpittman

Jun 24
NEW: Mississippi's only abortion clinic, the Jackson Women's Health Organization, will remain open until at least July 4th.

At or soon after that point, all abortions will be illegal except to save a pregnant person's life or in rape cases.*
mississippifreepress.org/25094/mississi…
*People who are raped must have reported their rape to law enforcement in order to obtain an abortion for that reason once the 2007 trigger law becomes effective.
mississippifreepress.org/25094/mississi…
“If you have an appointment for an abortion, keep it,” the Mississippi Abortion Access Coalition says. “...Abortion will be banned in Mississippi as early as the 4th of July.”
mississippifreepress.org/25094/mississi…
Read 4 tweets
Jun 23
NEW: After 12 years spent dodging debates, U.S. House Rep. Steven Palazzo will face an opponent onstage tomorrow for the first time since winning his seat in 2010.

With his seat in jeopardy, Palazzo asked for a debate with GOP runoff opponent Mike Ezell.
mississippifreepress.org/24987/facing-g…
Over the years, Palazzo has repeatedly ignored invitations to debate Democratic and GOP opponents alike while cruising to re-election. He skipped four GOP primary forums this year.

But after being forced into a runoff, Palazzo changed his tune.
mississippifreepress.org/24987/facing-g…
"I challenge Mike Ezell to a debate to be held under mutually agreeable terms before June 28,” Rep. Palazzo said. “Voters deserve to hear directly from both candidates and compare our records before the runoff.”

Opponents have said the same for years.🦗
mississippifreepress.org/24987/facing-g…
Read 14 tweets
Jun 21
NEW: GOP Congressional candidate Brian Flowers is telling voters that, unless they elect him, undocumented immigrants will "come to your middle-class neighborhood" and "swarm your gated community."

"Yes, your guns might stop a few ... but how many?”
mississippifreepress.org/24898/gop-cand…
Brian Flowers is running in Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District, a seat currently held by January 6th Committee Chairman @BennieGThompson.

Flowers says Thompson may be guilty of "treasonous assistance" to undocumented immigrants.
mississippifreepress.org/24898/gop-cand…
“The future of America, your own personal future & that of your posterity depends on repelling the invasion & removing the traitors from their positions of power in public and private life,” Brian Flowers says, alluding to the "great replacement" theory.mississippifreepress.org/24898/gop-cand…
Read 13 tweets
Jun 20
I don't even know why my mom still lies and calls this a bird feeder. It's clearly a squirrel feeder.
There were 5 squirrels hanging on this bird feeder when I started to raise my camera to take the photo.

I captured this one when it was giving its, "Huh, where'd everybody go?" look.
Alt text: A white squirrel clings onto the side of a bird feeder that is hanging on a tree. He is holding his head up looking alert.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 15
NEW: Brian Flowers, a Mississippi Republicans hoping to unseat January 6th Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, claims the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 are “American patriots” who are being “held as political prisoners.” #January6th
mississippifreepress.org/24762/gop-cand…
“They were there to defend the Republican and the democratic system. The media called these patriots ‘insurrectionists,’” Brian Flowers’ site says. “In reality, it was the Democratic Party who conducted an insurrection.”

(That is not what happened.)
mississippifreepress.org/24762/gop-cand…
Rep. Thompson: “I’m from a part of the country where people justified the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and lynching. I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try to justify the actions of the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, 2021.”
mississippifreepress.org/24762/gop-cand… An AP photo showing Rep Bennie Thompson sitting calmly in th
Read 5 tweets
Jun 15
And so I begin my third read of the month. a photo of the title page in the book Wuthering Heights by E
Update: I'm on Chapter 6, and I am enjoying it, but have now resorted to using a family tree to keep up with who's who and who's related to who.
Here's the family tree I found. a drawing showing the Earnshaw and Linton family trees
Read 4 tweets

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