Anti-Abortion Activists Want a Seat at the Political Table. Neither Party Wants Them There.

“Neither party may want them” at the table, “but only one party sent them an invitation,” a longtime Democratic strategist said.

Abby Johnson
“I don’t know that God has called me here to win this election, and I’m OK with that,” Abby Johnson said. Darron Cummings/AP

Prominent anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson took the stage at the Texas Republican Party convention last Thursday to urge party delegates to choose her as vice chair. The crowd applauded as she talked about how the 2020 election was stolen, how liberalism is “a belief full of demonic ideas” and how abortion should never be removed from the GOP platform — even as some want the party to stay away from the topic.

She and her running mate, Weston Martinez, wound up in third place, losing the election. She expected it.

“I don’t know that God has called me here to win this election, and I’m OK with that,” Johnson told NOTUS ahead of the state party elections. “But I know that he’s called me to be here for a reason, and I believe that reason is to really proclaim the truth about abortion, to help people understand that biblical principles are more important than simply winning elections.”