As the Democrats are running further and further to the left, one burgeoning draft PAC is hoping to drum up enough attention to convince a pro-life candidate on the left to jump into the already overcrowded primary field.
In an interview Tuesday with Faithwire, Jacob Lupfer, lead strategist for the Pro-Life Democratic Candidate PAC, said that while the principal goal of the PAC is to draft a candidate, even more than that, its backers are hoping to start a national conversation about abortion, particularly on the progressive left.
“A pro-life Democratic presidential campaign is the best way to force a conversation that the Democratic Party, the media, and the pro-life movement are currently avoiding,” said Lupfer, a consultant whose firm, The Relay Group, often works with candidates and organizations outside the two mainstream political parties.
The PAC is structured to take contributions up to $2,800, which will then be earmarked for a pro-life Democratic candidate and immediately handed over to him or her, should such a person jump into the race.
Lupfer, who reached out to us after seeing our story on three-time presidential candidate Joe Biden’s shifting views on abortion, said it’s his hope a pro-life Democrat would argue from the debate stage during the primaries that “protecting the vulnerable, which is a progressive value, should include the unborn.”
“At a minimum,” he added, “[the candidate should argue] that the Democratic Party should have a better message to pro-life Democrats than, ‘Sit down and shut up,’ which is all they’ve been saying for my whole life.”
When asked why so many Democrats over the years have had a moral disconnect when it comes to protecting the unborn, choosing not to see abortion as an issue, Lupfer, after a pregnant pause, simply said: “That’s a good question.”
While it’s not yet clear whether the PAC’s endeavor will be successful, there’s no doubt its backers have the statistics on their side. Americans are increasingly opposed to abortion, especially late-term abortion. Americans are nearly split down the middle on the morality of abortion and a stunning 93 percent of millennials disagree with the Democratic Party’s radical stance on the issue.
In 2016, the Democratic Party platform stated: “Every woman should have access to quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion — regardless of where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she is insured.”
And the lineup of 2020 presidential hopefuls are, like many in the Democratic Party, continuing to march leftward on abortion.
Lupfer said the pro-life Democrats behind the nascent PAC feel “ignored and pushed aside” and as if they’re members of a political party that has said, “You’re not welcome here.”
“Not only has the party’s platform become extreme, but the party will not even acknowledge that [abortion] is an issue that good Democrats of good faith and good will can disagree about,” Lupfer said. “It’s like, ‘If you don’t support our view, then you’re anti-woman.’”
Pro-life progressives, he added, are “tired of being treated that way in their own party.”
For more information about the draft PAC, click here.