November 7, 2024
Americans are still processing last night’s election results – for the Democrats, it’s both a time for mourning, and a time to cast blame. Meanwhile, Republicans are relishing the victory, taking a much-deserved victory lap. But how about those of us in the pro-life movement?
In a word: cautiously optimistic and looking with a hopeful eye to the future.
In case you missed it, last night SFLA and SFLAction hosted special guests Josh Hammer, Nick Freitas, U.S. Rep. Bob Good, and others, to give live reactions and the pro-life perspective on the nights’ biggest races. Needless to say, all the election updates and news kept us very busy.
TO WATCH OUR ELECTION NIGHT LIVESTREAM, CLICK HERE
READ OUR PRESIDENTIAL RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT HERE: With LIFE on the Line, Voters Reject the Most Radical, Pro-Abortion Presidential Ticket in World History & elect President Donald Trump
Countless hours of effort by Students for Life Action’s (SFLAction) and Students for Life of America’s (SFLA) grassroots army of students and volunteer during the last year led us to this point.
Let’s dive into what that looked like.
The Road to Election Day
Across the country in 2024, SFLAction and SFLA participated in 156 primaries, knocked on more than 100,000 doors, sent over 1.7 million texts, made over 500,000 phone calls, and sent over 241,000 mailers. We also engaged students via flyering campaigns at 70 targeted campuses in swing districts.
Additionally, SFLAction launched 13 different vote-pro-life digital ad campaigns, resulting in more than 4,000,00 impressions and nearly 24,000 voter minds changed.
In the month leading up to election day, SFLAction engaged in its biggest deployments of the year in states where critical legislative seats were up for grabs, hotly contested U.S. Senate races involving a strong pro-life candidate were underway, or pro-abortion ballot initiatives threatening preborn lives in the state were on the ballot for November.
These states included:
- Arizona
- Florida
- Michigan
- Montana
- Missouri
- North Carolina
- New Hampshire
- Nebraska
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
The deployments weren’t the only strategy SFLAction used to reach voters.
SFLAction kicked off numerous advertising campaigns, including the Democrats for Infanticide Campaign, showcasing the Democrats’ comfort with the barbarism of late-term abortion and even infanticide. This specific campaign included a national TV commercial and a digital launch in the swing states of Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New Hampshire.
TO LEARN MORE, CLICK HERE.
Other campaigns included:
- The Almost Aborted Campaign, designed to confront the sales pitch of numerous state ballot initiatives telling women that they are not enough and must vote for late-term abortion.
- An ad targeting three pro-abortion Oklahoma judges, encouraging voters to say NO to another six years of politically driven justices using the bench to usurp Oklahoman voters’ values. One of these judges was defeated, becoming the first Oklahoma judge in history to fail a retention vote, and the two others were elected with barely 51% of the vote.
- Biden’s Favorite Republicans, which highlighted and exposed the rampant hypocrisy present inside the so-called moderate wing of the GOP.
We also managed numerous Ballot Initiatives campaigns, including Decline to Sign and Vote NO educational efforts, releasing messaging kits for both campaigns, and launching Abortionballot.com, featuring state specific information, resources, and more.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR VOTE NO AND DECLINE TO SIGN EFFORTS, CLICK HERE.
The Pro-Life Generation conducted numerous campus tours and billboard truck tours to go straight to the all-important and vast Youth Vote, including:
- The Too Extreme For Mecampus tour.
- The “Vote NO on 4” Florida Billboard Truck
- The “No Abortion, No Exceptions”
- The “Stop Abortion Extremism”
Vice President Harris gave us another tour of sorts, when she did her best ‘Waldo’ impression hiding the exact location of her abortion advocacy tour events and shielding the public from asking actual, hard-hitting questions.
But the common thread through it all was abortion facilities, and SFLA doing our level-best to be there to protest her and her advocates.
READ: This School Year’s Mission: Playing “Where’s Waldo?” With Kamala Harris and Joe Biden
Then there was President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance and subsequent exit from the race. SFLAction tracked and analyzed the veepstakes for both the Republicans and the Democrats, preparing numerous articles and messaging plans to go after the most radically pro-abortion Presidential ticket in living memory.
VISIT SFLACTION’S NEWS PAGE TO READ THEM ALL
During it all, SFLAction released its Pro-Life Generation Report Card, this time scoring the 118th Congress on several key pro-life votes, legislation co-sponsorships, and stances in defense of the preborn so far this Congressional cycle. The full results can be seen HERE.
The end result of this multi-pronged and years-long grassroots activism campaign? 86 SFLAction endorsed candidates winning their primary races, including major state party leaders taken out, at a cost of $1,179 per candidate.
The full breakdown and announcement press releases for each primary are below:
10,563 texts to five targeted districts to educate voters about the records of candidates. Wins in targeted districts include:
- Senate District N – Stephen Wright
- House District 27 – David Eastman
- House District 35 – Ruben McNeill
62,612 texts, 54,964 calls made, 16,252 pieces of mail sent, and 2,482 doors knocked across six targeted districts to educate voters about the records of candidates. Wins in targeted districts include:
- House District 18 – Kim Kendall
- House District 20 – Judson Sapp
SFLAction sent out 65,064 text messages, and made 38,952 phone calls across eleven targeted districts. Wins in targeted districts include:
- Senate District 8 – Christy Zito
- Senate District 9 – Brandon Shippy
- Senate District 10 – Tammy Nichols
- Senate District 13 – Brian Lenney
- Senate District 20 – Josh Keyser
- House District 8A – Robert Beiswenger
Leading up to the election, SFLAction sent 29,126 text messages, made 15,974 phone calls, and knocked on 971 doors. Wins in targeted districts include:
- District 24 – Hunter Smith
- District 50 – Lorissa Sweet
- District 64 – Matt Hostettler
- District 66 – Zach Payne
- District 35 – Michael Young
SFLAction sent out 15,040 text messages, made 12,688 phone calls, distributed 2,674 pieces of direct mail, and knocked on 785 doors across five targeted districts. Wins in targeted districts include:
- Samantha Fett – House District 22
- Judd Lawler – House District 91
In this cycle, SFLAction sent 24,248 texts and made 34,010 calls in targeted districts to educate voters about the records of candidates. Wins in those districts include:
- Senate District 34 – Rep. Michael Murphy
- House District 77 – Rep. Kristey Williams
Leading up to the election, SFLAction sent out 6,876 text messages, and made 4,371 phone calls across four targeted districts.
- House District 68 – Rep. Caleb Hinkle
- House District 88 – Greg Overstreet
- Senate District 5 – Speaker Matt Regier
In this cycle, SFLAction sent 12,482 texts, made 12,128 phone calls, distributed 9,353 pieces of direct mail, and knocked on 1,783 doors to voters in eleven targeted districts, educating them on the records of candidates. Victories in targeted districts include:
- House District 4 – Brian Nadeau
- House District 13 – Stephen Pearson
- House District 16 – Ron Dunn
- House District 16 – Kristine Perez
- House District 25 – James Thibault
- House District 34 – Russ Hodgkins
Leading up to the election, SFLAction sent over 11,500 text messages, made over 11,300 phone calls, sent over 11,300 pieces of direct mail, and knocked on 626 doors.
- House District 37 – Lana Peister
- House District 41- Ethan Clark
Leading up to the election, our organization sent 52,554 text messages, made 25,761 phone calls, and knocked 1,052 doors. In Brian Echevarria’s district, the margin of victory was a mere 171 votes out of over 9,000 cast, showing the impact that a strong grassroots campaign in support of pro-life champions can have.
- House District 48 – Ralph Carter
- House District 73 – Jonathan Almond,
- House District 94 – Blair Eddins
- House District 82 – Brian Echevarria
Leading up to the election, SFLAction sent out 57,205 text messages across four targeted districts, including involvement in the Congressional race, educating voters regarding the background and positions of candidates.
- House District 8 – Rep. SuAnn Olson
Leading up to the election, SFLAction sent 29,000 text messages, made 16,200 phone calls, and knocked on 2,605 doors.
- Senate District 31 – Rep. Dawn Keefer
- House District 109 – Rep. Robert Leadbeter
Leading up to the election, SFLAction sent out 26,078 text messages and 26,931 phone calls across six targeted districts, knocking on 633 doors, and sending 8,207 pieces of mail.
- House District 2 – Rep. Jim Olsen
- House District 41 – Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader
- Senate District 13 – Jonathan Wingard
- Senate District 17 – Senator Jett
- Senate District 43 – Kendal Sacchieri
SFLAction sent out two rounds of mailers totaling 37,407 pieces, as well 110,641 text messages, and 47,011 phone calls in the state senate districts alone, as well as running digital ads, door-knocking campaigns, and flyering efforts at churches. In the specific race of State Senator Sandy Senn, this work was the difference between victory or defeat; Senn lost by only 31 votes, after we knocked on over 1,100 doors in her district.
- Senate District 23: Carlisle Kennedy
- Senate District 27: Allen Blackmon
- Senate District 41: Rep. Matt Leber
- House District 6: Rep. April Cromer
- House District 10: Rep. Thomas Beach
- House District 28: Chris Huff
- House District 34: Sarita Edgerton
- House District 85: Rep. Jay Kilmartin
- House District 88: Rep. RJ May
- House District 96: Rep. Ryan McCabe
Leading up to the election, SFLAction sent out 38,015 text messages and 26,027 phone calls across six targeted districts educating voters regarding these legislators’ records.
- House District 16 – Rep. Trevor Lee re-elected
- House District 39 – Rep. Ken Ivory
- House District 67 – Rep. Christine Watkins
- Senate District 22 –Sen. Heidi Balderree
In one specific race, the margin of victory was razor thin – and it’s in part to the hard grassroots work of SFLAction that Sen. Patricia Rucker was able to pull off a win. As a result, the race in Sen. Rucker’s district was won by a mere 200 votes.
- Senate District 2 – Senator-elect Christopher Rose
- Senate District 9 – Senator-elect Brian Helton
- Senate District 15 – Senator-elect Tom Willis
- Senate District 16 – Senator Patricia Rucker
- House District 96 – Delegate-Elect Lisa White
- House District 97 – Delegate-Elect Chris Anders
In this cycle, SFLAction sent 29,802 texts, made 27,613 calls, sent 39,847 pieces of mail, and knocked on 341 doors across twenty-two targeted districts to educate voters about the records of candidates.
- Senate District 6 – Darin Smith
- Senate District 14 – Laura Taliaferro Pearson
- Senate District 26 – Tim Salazar
- House District 5 – Rep. Scott Smith
- House District 25 – Paul Hoeft
- House District 30 – Thomas Kelly
- House District 35 – Tony Locke
- House District 38 – Jayme Lien
- House District 48 – Darin McCann
- House District 50 – Rachel Rodriguez-Williams
- House District 55 – Joel Guggenmos
The blueprint and rationale for this strategic approach was explained in a Townhall op-ed penned by SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins, who explained why weak-on-life leaders won’t be tolerated anymore: “The message should be loud and clear: the pro-life vote isn’t going to be taken for granted anymore. If an elected official stands against Life or betrays our movement, we’re going to pack their bags for them.”
In the case of South Carolina, three GOP “sister” senators who declared their intention to oppose the passage of pro-life laws, including SFLAction’s Life at Conception Act, were roundly defeated this June after a series of grassroots pushes, campaigns, and deployments.
READ THE FULL OP-ED IN TOWNHALL: Getting Rid of Foxes in the Pro-Life Henhouse
Media Coverage of Our Efforts
It wasn’t just voters who took notice of our grassroots army – the media also came along with us, and we secured numerous pickups, including:
- Bloomberg
- The Wall Street Journal
- Slate
- The Guardian / Yahoo News
- Politico/Yahoo
- The 19th
- NBC News / MSN
- The Washington Post
- Politico
- The Federalist
- The Blaze
- Townhall
- Euro News
- The i News
- First Coast News Jacksonville*
- WTFS Action News Tampa*
- The Rochester Voice
- KGUN Tuscon*
- KOVA Phoenix*
- WFEA New Hampshire
- KCTV 5 St. Louis
*Note that some airings occurred live on air and were not saved to respective local news websites.
Where We Go From Here
In the short term, SFLAction will keep a watchful eye on how the election results processing continues. So far, 165 election lawsuits and counting have been filed, according to Bloomberg. As such, the Pro-Life Generation will watch and pray for a life-affirming outcome, but will keep recruiting for future ground action, if needed, to defend those who are voiceless in this election.
LEARN MORE HERE: With Life on the Line, Students for Life Action Begins Recruiting for our Election Integrity Team, Should Chaos Reign Post-Election
Long term and looking ahead to 2025, SFLAction will be launching a major legislative push, outlining our vision for making abortion unavailable and unthinkable, as well as building the siege engine with which we will attack the pro-abortion industry while defending and expanding existing pro-life laws.
More on that legislation will be shared in the coming weeks.
And of course, as we discussed during the general election, we will work alongside the new Presidential administration to protect preborn lives and negotiate a New Deal for the pro-life movement.
As Hawkins wrote in her most recent op-ed in Townhall, “The Republican caucuses taking power in legislative chambers across the country next year will be more pro-life than ever before, leading to greater opportunities to pass our critical pro-life legislation.”
Whether it was taking out bad actors like the South Carolina sister senators or seeing pro-life champions who support our legislation win their races, like Sen. Patricia Rucker in West Virginia, the Pro-Life Generation left its mark on the 2024 election cycle.
Onwards to 2025.
