Republicans caught promoting RFK to Pennsylvania Democratic voters

Democrats across Pennsylvania are receiving mailers from Republicans boosting RFK’s record on abortion in a misleading manner. The mailers use state party branding and popular pro-choice messaging to trick voters.  

In recent weeks, Democratic voters across Pennsylvania have been receiving mailers depicting third party candidate, Robert F Kennedy JR, as the “pro-choice” candidate in the upcoming presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. 

The mailers, however, are paid for by the SAG PAC, which is a super PAC run by a prominent Republican lawyer and designed to boost Kennedy amongst progressive Democrats. 

This has reproductive rights advocates crying foul and they see it as an underhanded campaign tactic.“We know that this is just opponents using every trick in the opposition handbook here,” Signe Espinoza, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes, told The Keystone in an interview.

“We just can’t help but stress that we are paying attention and we know that this is part of their playbook to go ahead and flip-flop their position on abortion. We’re paying attention and we know that voters are not going to be fooled just like they haven’t at the ballot box, every single time abortion has been on the ballot.”

The Keystone previously reported that Kennedy has a track record of flip-flopping on his abortion views. Last year at the Iowa State Fair, Kennedy said he would support a 15 week abortion ban but backtracked immediately. 

Then, in May, Kennedy told supporters he supports banning abortion when a fetus is viable at 15-18 weeks after he said he was in favor of allowing those which occur when something catastrophic happens during the last trimester of pregnancy.    

Not much is known about SAG PAC since it was launched at the beginning of July by Charles Gantt, but Open Secrets states that the PAC has spent $4.6 million supporting Kennedy. 

The New York Times reported that Gannt is the secretary of a pro-Trump nonprofit that’s aptly named Securing American Greatness and that SAG PAC has spent over $360,000 boosting Kennedy’s anti-abortion record. 

One of SAG PAC’s mailers mimics the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s blue, white and yellow branding that is often used on the party’s official campaign material while a second mailer takes a quote from Kennedy and overlays the text on a photo from a Planned Parenthood rally featuring a banner that says “Bans Off Our Bodies,” a popular Planned Parenthood slogan. 

Espinoza wants voters to understand that the only way to protect reproductive healthcare and freedoms this November is to support the Harris-Walz ticket. 

“We know that Vice President Kamala Harris has been a champion for sexual reproductive healthcare. We know that she has been unapologetic about abortion access,” Espinoza said.

“We’re talking about over a hundred events, keeping this issue front and center and showing up for folks across the country, even right here in our backyards in Pennsylvania, and we urge folks to continue to support her and the Walz ticket.”