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The Republican candidates challenging two of the most vulnerable Democratic U.S. senators in the country have both criticized women for being too focused on abortion rights. 

The statements from Tim Sheehy in Montana and Bernie Moreno in Ohio show how Republicans in competitive races are struggling to connect with voters, particularly women, on the issue of abortion this cycle. It is the first presidential election after the fall of Roe v. Wade and GOP-enacted state abortion bans and other reproductive policies are unpopular with voters — all are potential liabilities for Republican candidates up and down ballots. 

Complicating matters, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has provided confusing and sometimes misleading answers about how his administration would handle abortion rights, providing no cohesive template for down-ballot candidates to emulate. 

Sheehy, who is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester in Montana, told a group in late 2023 that younger women have been “indoctrinated” on the issue of abortion and are “single-issue voters,” according to a recording of the event first shared late last month by Char-Koosta News, a news publication of the Flathead Indian Reservation. 

“Young people, listen up, they’ve been indoctrinated for too long, we don’t even try to talk to them anymore, we don’t even go to them, and explain to them,” Sheehy said on the recording. 

“I sat with a group of younger folks a couple of months ago, talking about, just, various issues, and one of them was life. Because of course, young women between the ages of 19 and 30, abortion is their Number One concern. That’s all they want to talk about. They are single-issue voters. And it’s all about ‘pro-choice, pro-choice, well, Republicans are pro-life, they want to take my rights away and lock me up in prison,’” he continues.

Sheehy then repeated a lie that Democrats want to implement policies that allow abortion “up to and including the moment of birth” and permit doctors to “murder” babies after they are born. The lie has been making the rounds among some Republican candidates, including former President Trump, who reiterated it during his only 2024 presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Sheehy also made derisive comments about alcohol abuse on the Crow Indian Reservation. And, in a presumed reference to Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr,  the first out transgender woman to serve in the Montana legislature, he said, “Boys are girls and girls are boys in the legislature, thanks to our friend up there,” the recordings reveal.

Char-Koosta News released the full recordings of the events after Sheehy alleged that they had been edited in a way that was misleading. Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to a request from The 19th to comment on his remarks or to the Daily Montanan for a story they published late last week detailing his statements. His campaign did not dispute the validity of the recordings when contacted by NBC News. 

“Tim Sheehy calling young women ‘indoctrinated’ because they value reproductive freedom just goes to show how out of touch he is with Montanans,” Monica Robinson, a spokesperson for Tester’s campaign, told The 19th.

The audio of Sheehy surfaced after Moreno lamented at a recent campaign event in Ohio that a lot of suburban women are “single-issue voters” on abortion as he challenges incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. An NBC affiliate in Ohio obtained video footage of Moreno’s remarks, in which he also said it was “a little crazy” for women over 50 years old to care about the issue of abortion rights.

“You know, the left has a lot of single-issue voters. Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ Okay. It’s a little crazy by the way, but especially for women that are like past 50, I’m thinking to myself: ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’”

Moreno’s campaign told the NBC affiliate that the comments were “tongue-in-cheek.” They were denounced by politicians in both parties in Ohio and nationally, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who competed in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. “Are you trying to lose? Asking for a friend,” Haley wrote on the social media site X. 

Moreno’s campaign did not respond to a request to comment on his remarks about women and abortion. 

Ohioans approved a ballot measure last year with 57 percent of the vote to enshrine abortion protections in the state’s constitution. Voters in Montana have an opportunity to add the same protections to their state’s constitution via a ballot initiative in November.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, himself a staunch opponent of abortion, acknowledged in the vice presidential debate last week that Republicans are playing defense on the issue of abortion and reproductive health care more broadly. “We’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance said. 

While the economy remains the top issue overall for voters, abortion is gaining ground, particularly in political battleground states. Some polls show that for women under 45, abortion is now the most important issue. 

The outcome of the Senate races in Ohio and Montana could determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress.

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