PORTSMOUTH, NH – Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan vows to “fight and never back down” to protect legalized abortion in her latest television ad airing in her home state of New Hampshire. Hassan was the first Democratic senator from a key battleground state facing tough re-election in the November midterms to release an abortion ad after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority’s monumental move last week to overturn his landmark half century Roe v. Wade decision. “This decision throws us backwards, and there are politicians like Mitch McConnell who have made it clear that their goal is to ban abortion nationwide,” Hassan says in her ad. “We will not be intimidated. I will fight and I will never back down. I am Maggie Hassan and I endorse this message because protecting our personal liberties is not only the right thing for New Hampshire, it is what makes us New Hampshire.” Hassan ad is one of several points from Democratic incumbents and candidates running this year, as well as party committees and outside groups, who will begin participating this week in the Senate, House and gubernatorial contests. DEMOCRATS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGISTS WEIGH SUPREME COURT RULING IMPACTS ON MID-TERM ELECTIONS The political arm of Emily’s List, a group working to elect pro-abortion Democratic female candidates, also ran an ad praising Hassan for pushing “for a federal law that would protect a woman’s right to take her own personal decisions”. The New Hampshire Senate primary is in early September, so Hassan doesn’t know which Republican challenger she’ll face in November. But she has been heavily targeted by the GOP, which sees her as vulnerable as she seeks a second term. But in states where the GOP nominees have already been decided, Democrats are taking aim. An ad that ran this week in the key state of Pennsylvania takes aim at Mehmet Oz, the renowned physician and heart surgeon known as Dr. Oz, who last month won the GOP Senate nomination in the open race. POLL: MAJORITY OF AMERICANS OPPOSE OVERTURN OF ROE V. WADE “I’m pro-life. I’ve been very clear about my position,” Mehmet Oz says in a quote in the ad, which was posted by the political arm of Planned Parenthood. The narrator charges that Oz “wants to make abortion a crime in Pennsylvania.” A separate political wing of Planned Parenthood took to the airwaves in battleground state Wisconsin to take aim at GOP Sen. Ron Johnson on the issue. Democrats see Johnson as the most vulnerable Republican senator running for re-election this year. The political wing of Emily’s List has found a spot in Nevada that highlights the anti-abortion stance of former state attorney general Adam Laxalt, who is this year’s GOP candidate for Senate. And Democratic Washington State Sen. Patty Murray released an ad that uses a clip of Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley saying “I’m 100% pro-life.” Democrats also took to the airwaves to run pro-abortion ads this week in House races and gubernatorial battles — including in Illinois, where Gov. JB Pritzker is using clips of GOP candidate and state Sen. Darren Bailey discussing his views against of abortions. WHAT OUR LATEST FOX NEWS 2022 MIDTERMS POWER RANKINGS SHOW National ad tracking company AdImpact said that as of Thursday, $4 million had been spent on abortion ads since last Friday’s Supreme Court decision. Democrats are seeking to emphasize the issue between now and November, when the party will defend its slim House and Senate majorities as they face historic headwinds in an extremely difficult political climate fueled by soaring gas prices , soaring inflation and President Biden’s sinking approval ratings. Party strategists see a silver lining in the seismic reversal of Roe v. Wade and the return of legalized abortion to state legislatures. It could offer Democrats a chance to shift the campaign debate, energize the left base and win back key women and suburban voters who helped Democrats win back the House in 2018 but appeared to cross party lines in some contests for Congress in 2020 and again in GOP victories in Virginia and New Jersey last November. Abortion rights protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022. ((AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)) Democrats point to polls taken after the Supreme Court ruling that show a large majority of Americans disagree with the view and that it may prompt more Democrats than Republicans to vote midterms. They aim to turn anger over the decision into support at the polls, even as Republicans aim to keep the focus on rising prices and crime less than five months before midterm elections. VISIT THE FOX NEWS VOTING CENTER FOR THE LATEST PRIMARY RESULTS “There are going to be dozens and dozens of close races on Election Day, and the abortion issue is going to swing it to the Democratic nominee in a lot of them,” veteran Democratic pollster John Anzalone told Fox News.
“Abortion will be illegal in a large swath of America on Election Day in places voters didn’t think it would be, and there will be a reckoning from voters on GOP candidates who support a ban and often no exceptions for rape and incest. Democratic candidates on the defensive, when just a month ago, only the Democrats were on the defensive,” said Anzalone, head of polling for President Biden’s 2020 campaign. But longtime Republican consultant David Carney argued that “saying something is working and knowing something is working are not the same thing. Democrats are using this issue like the boy who cried wolf. They do that every cycle when they don’t have an agenda. “. Carney, a veteran of several GOP presidential and state campaigns over the past two decades, acknowledged that “obviously people are concerned in some states” about the abortion issue. CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION But he said the top issue of the midterms will be “$5 gas,” as well as skyrocketing prices for home heating oil, natural gas and electricity. And Republicans aim to counter the attacks on abortion, pointing to what they describe as “Democrats’ radical position to support late-term abortions until the moment of birth.” Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.