Steve Bannon Rages to Priest After GOP's Ohio Election Loss

Steve Bannon raged while interviewing a priest on his podcast following this week's Republican defeat in a vote in Ohio, arguing that unless the anti-abortion movement reorganizes itself, top GOP donors will begin pulling their money from activist groups.

"These are not left-wing places, Kansas and Ohio, brother. I mean, you're not going to get more MAGA," Bannon told Frank Pavone, a laicized Catholic priest and the national director of anti-abortion group Priests for Life, during Wednesday's episode of Bannon's War Room podcast. "Ohio is the bastion of MAGA."

Bannon went on: "I'm telling you that if [the anti-abortion movement] doesn't get organized, and I mean organized quickly, there's a lot of voices in the donor community and others saying, 'Hey, you know, what are we doing here? Because these guys are a drag right now when we can't afford it.'"

On Tuesday, voters in Ohio, which has become a Republican stronghold in recent elections, rebuked a GOP-backed effort known as Issue 1, shooting down a measure that would have made it harder to pass future amendments to the state constitution. Although the issue of abortion was not directly on the ballot, the vote sets up a showdown in November, when an amendment enshrining abortion rights in Ohio's constitution will come up for vote. Issue 1's defeat has been largely seen as a proxy win for abortion-rights advocates.

Ohio is the third state where voters have blocked efforts to restrict abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Last August, voters in Kansas rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have said there was no right to abortion. And this past April voters in Wisconsin flipped the state Supreme Court's conservative majority after electing a liberal candidate who would likely open the path to reversing the state's abortion ban.

"You've had three in a row where that case hasn't been made or is not resonant, and these are not close," Bannon told Pavone. "In modern American politics, these are blowouts."

The backfiring of the Republican effort in Ohio suggests that abortion remains a major driving force for voters and could continue fueling a winning political strategy for Democrats. Their party fended off an expected red wave during last year's midterms, thanks, in part, to voter anger over the Supreme Court's Roe decision ending the constitutional right to an abortion.

Notably, this week's Republican defeat on Issue 1 took place in Ohio, where former President Donald Trump won in both 2016 and 2020 and where Republicans hold majority control of the state government.

Pavone told Newsweek that while he agreed with Bannon's view that the anti-abortion movement needs to do a better job at messaging and political organizing, he believes it is still an issue Republicans can win with.

"When we speak about the abortion issue properly, it is a winning issue, not a losing one," Pavone said. "Ballot initiatives are one thing. At the same time, we have half of the states enacting laws that increase protections for the unborn and introduce restrictions on abortion that most Americans want to see."

He went on: "Politically, pro-life candidates and citizens have to show the American people that we are the reasonable and compassionate ones. Unlike the Democrats, who want unrestricted abortion, we recognize that a child in the womb has rights, that parents have rights when a minor wants an abortion, and that abortion harms women. And unlike the Democrats, we are the ones providing, day by day, compassionate alternatives to abortion and healing after abortion. We are committed to making sure voters understand that."

On his podcast, Bannon told Pavone that while it was still important for Republicans to remain opposed to abortion, activist groups may be placing too much focus on making it a major issue for conservative Americans.

"You finally got the Supreme Court—Trump's victory—and in '16...it wasn't a front-thing issue. It was part of our coalition, don't get me wrong, and absolutely essential," said Bannon, a longtime Trump ally. "But that wasn't just a central beating-heart issue."

Update 8/14/23, 9:25 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comments from Frank Pavone.