Rep. Brian Elder Shown the Door by Bay County Voters

Like Louisiana, Michigan’s Bay County is one of those strange places where honest to goodness prolife Democrats continue to exist and have a meaningful impact.

State Rep. Brian Elder once counted himself among that group of prolife Democrats. His win in the 2016 primary race against a Planned Parenthood-backed Democrat was the highlight of that evening. Hope sprung eternal that in the face of ever-declining numbers of prolife Democrats, the Michigan Legislature would have a strong contrary voice.

Sadly, it was not to be.

To make a long story short, Rep. Elder wanted to the speaker of the Michigan House, and was either told by someone or thought to himself that he needed to embrace abortion to achieve that powerful position.

So, Rep. Elder engaged in some next-level treachery and told Right to Life of Michigan staff he wouldn’t be seeking an endorsement in 2018—just minutes after the filing deadline, to purposefully prevent a real prolife Democrat from challenging him in the primary. A few days later, Rep. Elder went to the media to blindside us with criticism that we don’t do enough to care for pregnant women.

His sell-out wasn’t complete, however. Even though we reached out to him to try to smooth things over, four months after his election shenanigans he introduced legislation attacking prolife pregnancy centers and their 1st Amendment rights. It was practically a carbon copy of an egregious California law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in NIFLA v. Becerra.

Apparently, Rep. Elder believes prolife people don’t care about pregnant women, but when we do, we should be censored for it. Power corrupts, including logic.

Rep. Elder lost his bid to be speaker of the Michigan House, so his sell-out was for nothing. Yesterday, he lost his seat in the Michigan House’s 96th District to Timothy Beson, a local school board member and owner of Beson’s Market. Beson is 100% prolife. Congratulations Rep. Beson, and thank you to all the prolife volunteers who helped his campaign.

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? What happens when he doesn’t gain anything for his soul at all?

The broader lesson from this race and the 2020 election is that Democrats’ rabid support for abortion on the national level is holding them back. In this populist era, a Democratic Party that wasn’t overtly hostile to voters who believe children in the womb are more than “parasites” could win a lot more races. Sadly, except for Louisiana and a few stubborn but courageous holdouts, Democrat leaders continue to believe their only path to power is on the backs of millions more dead babies.

We hope that changes, and someday soon.

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