A political ad released in late August depicts a scenario in which a sheriff arrests a man and his pregnant teenage daughter because he suspects he is driving her to another state to get an abortion. The sheriff declares, "And you, young lady, well, you're under arrest for evading motherhood."
The ad wasn't created by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Organization for Women (NOW) or Emily's List, but rather, by The Lincoln Project — an anti-Donald Trump conservative group that is supporting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. And according to The Guardian's David Smith, it is a prime example of "Red Dawn conservatives" reaching out to "Dobbs dads."
"Red Dawn" (starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) was a 1984 Hollywood action movie that depicted American teenagers fighting communists after a Soviet invasion of the United States.
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Smith describes "Red Dawn conservatives" as non-MAGA conservatives who "value a strong national defense and traditional alliances" and "Dobbs dads" as "suburban Gen-X and Millennial fathers angered by the prospect of 'big government' making choices for their wives' and daughters' reproductive healthcare needs."
The two, according to Smith, have formed an unlikely pro-Harris alliance in this year's election.
"It is the latest attempt to find a snappy shorthand to describe the type of voters whose decisions are set to affect the whole of America and the world," Smith explains. "That is because, in the absence of a national popular vote, the result of the presidential election is likely to come down to just tens of thousands of votes in seven swing states…. That the Dobbs decision, which overturned half a century of legal precedent protecting the right to abortion under Roe v. Wade, already galvanized progressive female voters in the 2022 midterm elections is no secret. But the Lincoln Democracy Institute believes that conservative men could also be crucial."
Trygve Olson, senior adviser to The Lincoln Project's Lincoln Democracy Institute, told The Guardian, "The Dobbs dads tend to be Millennial. They are more likely to be college-educated white males, and they're disproportionately girl dads. Some of them are pro-life; they're conservatives. Their conservatism is grounded in, 'I don't want government telling me what to do.'"
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Read The Guardian's full article at this link and watch the full Lincoln Project video below or here.
