RNC chair: Republicans must address abortion issue 'head-on'

The chair of the Republican National Committee said Sunday that Republicans must directly address abortion if they hope to succeed in 2024.

"Abortion was a big issue in key states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, and so the guidance we're going to to give to our candidates is, you to have to address this head-on," RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said during an interview on "Fox News Sunday," referring to the outcome of the 2022 midterms.

"The Democrats spent 360 million on this, and many of our candidates across the board refused to talk about it, thinking, 'Oh we can just talk about the economy and ignore this big issue,' and they can't."

Abortion has become a central issue for voters in federal and state elections across the country since the historic Dobbs decision last year ended federal protections for abortion. The issue has spread into local races like the one for a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. As polling indicates that support for abortion access has increased, lawmakers — particularly Republicans — have become more divided over how to handle the issue.

"It's not just talk about it once," McDaniel said Sunday. "You need to say, listen I'm proud to be pro-life. ... we need to find consensus among Democrats and Republicans."