Nonpartisan state elections that take place in the middle of the year receive little media coverage — but the media made an exception this month, when a Georgia Supreme Court race briefly became a national bellwether for abortion. Then, as soon as the results came in, the media shrouded the results in studied silence.
Democrat and former five-term U.S. Congressman John Barrow decided he could win a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court by launching into an extended abortion monologue against Justice Andrew Pinson, who was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp (R) in 2022. Although three other high court justices ran unopposed, Barrow explained he specifically targeted Pinson because, as state solicitor general, Pinson defended Georgia’s heartbeat law — a pro-life protection shielding unborn babies from abortion once doctors can detect a fetal heartbeat, usually around six weeks.
During an interview with The Hill, Barrow summarized his candidacy with a triple-redundant mission statement: “I’m running for the Supreme Court of Georgia because I believe that women today have the same rights under the state constitution that they used to have under Roe vs. Wade, before it was overturned with the help of my opponent, and that’s why I’m running[,] and that’s why I’m running against him.”
No one had any doubt about the thrust of the campaign. Planned Parenthood and abortion lobbying groups endorsed him. “A state Supreme Court race in Georgia puts abortion on the ballot,” proclaimed MSNBC.
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Barrow remained so committed to centering his entire campaign on abortion that, when the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission told him he was violating judicial ethics by announcing how he would vote on cases that had yet to come before him, Barrow sued to keep talking about abortion. (A judge dismissed the case.)
How did Barrow’s single-issue campaign come out? He lost by a 10-point spread: 55% Pinson vs. 45% Barrow.
The Southeast campaign director of the abortion lobby group Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America), Alicia Stallworth, pronounced the group “deeply disappointed” at the results. Christian conservatives celebrated. “The Democratic strategy of placing abortion at the center of the 2024 campaign utterly failed” last Tuesday in Georgia, said Ralph Reed, Faith & Freedom Coalition chairman and founder. Barrow’s loss “calls into question the entire Democratic strategy of eking out a victory by scaring suburban voters with abortion.”
The word sadly trickled out in local media. “Incumbent Georgia Justice Andrew Pinson defeats challenge from John Barrow focused on abortion rights,” stated Atlanta’s public broadcasting station WABE. “Justice Pinson wins court race that became referendum on abortion rights in Georgia,” reported Georgia Reporter, a publication of States Newsroom (a left-wing organization posing as a news organization, as we described earlier this month).
Curiously, that’s when the previously top-watched race fell off the national radar. The story made the national media thanks to Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner, who called Barrow’s defeat “perhaps the biggest electoral win for the pro-life cause since the fall of Roe v. Wade.”
It bears repeating: The narrative of the undefeatable abortion monologue had failed. Pro-life candidates should campaign accordingly.
LifeNews Note: Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.
