1978 pro-life upsets convinced Weyrich abortion could mobilize evangelical voters

Evidence

The midterm elections in 1978, when pro-life Republicans defeated favored Democratic candidates in New Hampshire, Iowa, and Minnesota, persuaded Weyrich that opposition to abortion could work as a populist issue. In those races, antiabortion activists (principally Roman Catholics) leafleted church parking lots on the final weekend of the campaign; two days later, in a plebiscite with a very low turnout, the favored Democratic candidates lost. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 125

Categorization

• XREF: Irony: the activists who proved the tactic were predominantly Roman Catholics — the very tradition evangelicals historically distrusted, and which gets erased in the Religious Right’s Protestant origin story. — connects to: Evangelicals adopted anti-abortion politics six years after Roe for political gain — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 255; The IRS’s Bob Jones revocation supplied Weyrich’s racial organizing issue — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 112; About 25,000 Iowa voters were swayed by abortion in the 1978 Senate race — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 128 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Operatives treated the 1978 election as a test of abortion’s mobilizing power #corroborates (0.85) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 128
• Weyrich himself asserted abortion was irrelevant to the Religious Right’s rise #contradicts (0.82) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 22
• Evangelical opposition to abortion was initially uncertain and politically constructed #corroborates (0.80) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 160
• Abortion was adopted as a rallying issue because it could unite disparate cultural conservatives #expands (0.80) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 258
• Few evangelical voices spoke against abortion through most of the 1970s #corroborates (0.78) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 122
• Abortion was not a key evangelical voting issue before 1979. #corroborates (0.78) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 246
• Abortion failed for years to mobilize evangelicals before the IRS ruling #corroborates (0.78) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 106
• The Religious Right’s founding narrative claims Roe v. Wade roused evangelicals from political passivity #corroborates (0.75) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 89
• The 1978 ‘insignificant number of minority students’ IRS rule was Weyrich’s rallying issue #qualifies (0.75)