Amid Democratic attack ads blasting then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon’s hardline stance on abortion, Donald Trump privately advised the Michigander to “talk differently” about the issue in a bid to win over voters.
“You came to me and you said, ‘You’ve got to talk differently about abortion,’ and we could not pivot, we could not pivot in time,” Dixon told Trump during an appearance on her show, The Tudor Dixon Podcast. “You were absolutely right, sir, and I hope that you are able to navigate that issue in ’24 and that we can win those women back.”
Trump agreed with Dixon’s assessment. “Yep,” the former president replied. “That’s what happened to you and that’s what happened to a lot of other people. Didn’t happen to me because, you know, there’s a way of talking about it. They’re the radicals.”
“I think exceptions are very important. I think you need the exceptions. You and I talked about that,” he added.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer hammered Dixon during the 2022 gubernatorial election, in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, for her blanket opposition to abortion – even in cases of rape and incest – except when the mother’s life was in jeopardy. “A life is a life for me,” Dixon said on a podcast in July 2022. “That’s how it is. That is for me, that’s my feeling.”
Whitmer responded by saying that “no common ground” existed between her and Dixon on abortion.
Pressed whether such a stance would alienate prospective voters, Dixon demurred at the time. “They [Democrats] think that’s the winning issue, but most Americans do not believe in this third-trimester abortion, partial abortion, ripping babies out and pulling them out of their mother,” the candidate told the podcaster. “That kind of stuff, that’s on the ballot.”
Dixon ultimately lost by 11 percentage points to Whitmer in the election. Speaking with Fox News in mid August, Dixon reflected that the abortion issue came to “define” her campaign and made her unable “to come back from that.”
“No one really understood how important abortion would be in 2022 because no one had run in a post-Roe world,” Dixon said.
Trump’s evolving stance on abortion has drawn, at times, condemnation and applause from the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America organization. Weeks after condemning the former president’s comments opposing federal abortion restrictions, SBA president Marjorie Dannenfelser and Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) met with Trump in early May, and said they had a “terrific” conversation.
“His presidency was the most consequential in American history for the pro-life cause,” Dannenfelser wrote at the time.
“During the meeting, President Trump reiterated his opposition to the extreme Democratic position of abortion on demand, up until the moment of birth, paid for by taxpayers – and even in some cases after the child is born. President Trump believes such a position is unworthy of a great nation and believes the American people will rebel against such a radical position that aligns us with China and North Korea.”
“President Trump knows the vast majority of Americans oppose brutal late-term abortions when the child can feel pain and suck their thumbs.”
Dannenfelser previously stated that SBA would not back any 2024 presidential candidate who doesn’t support a 15-week federal abortion ban. “We will oppose any presidential candidate who refuses to embrace at a minimum a 15-week national standard to stop painful late-term abortions while allowing states to enact further protections.”