Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) told a panel of women on Sunday that their right to an abortion does not "matter" when it comes to the 2022 midterm elections.
During a panel discussion on ABC's This Week, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) said that abortion is an "important" voting issue even if it is not number one in polls.
"It is," host Martha Raddatz agreed. "It's number three in the polls. And you've also got 62% saying it should be legal in all or most cases. How do Republicans square that?"
"I don't think they square it," Christie replied. "And I don't think that it matters. I mean, look, yeah, it's the third issue but it's three and a half times less important than the economy in this race. And I think the Democrats have made a serious strategic error."
"Remember, too, the intensity of voters matters," he continued. "In the end, look, I think people who are voting that as their number one issue have their jerseys on a long time ago, Martha. They were voting Democrat if they're pro-choice; they're voting Republican if they're pro-life. And the vast number of folks in the middle on where that issue is not their number one issue, they're making this decision based on the economy and crime."
He added: "And so, I think the Democrats who made this the centerpiece — and I've been traveling around I've seen a lot of ads about this from Democratic candidates — I think are going to look back on it and say they should have come up with a different strategy."
