On Tuesday, Representative Todd Akin said he will continue his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat despite being told by many GOP members to end his campaign. Akin said that the party overreacted to the comments he made about how the bodies of women can prevent getting pregnant when they are victims of ‘legitimate rape.’
“I misspoke one word in one sentence on one day, and all of a sudden, overnight, everybody decides, `Well, Akin can’t possibly win,'” Akin said during an interview on radio with Mike Huckabee, the former presidential candidate. “Well, I don’t agree with that.”
Akin spoke directly to anti-abortion activists, Christian evangelicals and anti-establishment Republicans. When he was being interviewed by Huckabee, Akin appealed to those groups by alluding to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and saying that he only placed a single word out of its position on Sunday during his television interview.
Akin had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to withdraw from the race without a court order. As the deadline approached, Akin was contacted and pressured by multiple members of the GOP, including Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. A statement was sent out by Senator Roy Blunt in conjunction with the four living Republican senators for Missouri; Kit Bond, John Ashcroft, John Danforth and Jim Talent. The statement said that “it serves the national interest” if Akin stops the campaign.
During his television interview on Sunday, Akin said, “It seems to me, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Many political experts feel that Akin might not be able to raise enough advertising money for his campaign should he continue. A fundraiser scheduled for September in Washington has been canceled when the 12 GOP senators planning to attend backed out.
“The stakes in this election are far bigger than any one individual,” Brian Walsh said. Walsh is a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Akin is putting at great risk many of the issues that he and others in the Republican Party are fighting for.”
At least one person has voiced her support for Akin. That person is Noreen McCann, a resident of the St. Louis area. “He is a man of principle. I trust and respect his integrity and his commitment to defending American values. I think he wants to defend all innocent human life. If he misspoke, or it was in the wrong context, that is not a major problem for me.”