Perhaps nowhere is this more true than in Ohio’s Senate race, where Republican Bernie Moreno was captured on camera openly wondering why women over 50 — and thus past typical childbearing age — would care about abortion access.
Those comments, made at a campaign event in September, have exploded his bid to oust Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, drawing rebukes from members of Moreno’s own party, including Nikki Haley. Moreno has said his comments were made in jest but the incumbent and his allies have used them in five separate broadcast TV ads in September and October.
“It is a pretty devastating ad,” said Betty Montgomery, a Republican and the first woman to serve as Ohio’s attorney general. She noted the “derision” in Moreno’s voice speaking about older women: “I don’t think it could hurt him. I think it does hurt him.”
“Bernie Moreno is very vulnerable to women,” she said. Abortion related-advertising accounted for more than 32 percent of all Democratic broadcast TV ad spending in 2024, according to AdImpact. The next most prevalent topic, “character,” represented only 17 percent (and $92.2 million) of broadcast ad spending, followed by healthcare at 14 percent and immigration at 13 percent. It’s a massive bankrolling of Democrats’ top issue — with candidates often using footage or audio of Republicans’ abortion flip flops against them. “It’s almost a genocide,” Republican Kari Lake says of abortion in captured audio used in a Democratic ad in Arizona’s Senate race. “A huge victory for the protection of innocent life,” Republican Dave McCormick says of the fall of Roe in a Democratic ad in Pennsylvania’s Senate race. With polls consistently showing voters trust Democrats far more than Republicans on abortion, even Democrats running longshot campaigns in red states, such as West Virginia, North Dakota and Tennessee, have run TV ads on the issue. With polls consistently showing voters trust Democrats far more than Republicans on abortion, even Democrats running longshot campaigns in red states, such as West Virginia, North Dakota and Tennessee, have run TV ads on the issue. Even Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, the most endangered incumbent this cycle, campaigned with the president of Planned Parenthood and aired a TV ad featuring a woman who traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to get an abortion before Roe. “Here’s the motto that works for the people of Montana: Government, none of your damn business,” said former Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who served as the state’s top executive from 2005 to 2013. “Democrats and Republicans alike would agree that we don’t need a government poking their nose into our private lives.”
Tester’s allies seized on unearthed audio of his opponent, Republican Tim Sheehy, suggesting young women were “indoctrinated” on the issue of abortion. But while the abortion ballot initiative is popular in Montana, Tester has trailed Sheehy in polling for months. And Democrats are well aware that many soft Republicans and independent voters may support the abortion ballot initiatives in their respective states but then also vote for Republicans for Congress or Donald Trump for president. In Nevada, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen has staked her reelection bid in large part on her support of abortion rights. Her allies have leaned heavily on audio of Republican Sam Brown suggesting that he was not in favor of changing Nevada’s existing laws. But early voting numbers in the state have Republicans feeling increasingly optimistic that abortion may not prove to be the silver bullet it was in the midterms. “I think it was a shock to voters in ‘22 and I’m just not sure that it’s as much of a shock now,” said Jeremy Hughes, a GOP consultant with ties to Nevada. “I’m just not sure that it’s been as galvanizing. It surely hasn’t been a turnout motivator for the Democrats.” | 
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