Republicans outside of Washington are dropping their opposition to gay marriage. Will the national party follow along?
Developments across the country in recent days signal a building momentum within the Republican Party to end the GOP's long-standing opposition to same-sex marriage, with activists arguing that doing so will allow GOP candidates to focus more on popular economic themes in this year's elections and help expand the party's appeal ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Greg McNeilly, 42, left of Grand Rapids, married his longtime partner Doug Meeks, 37, of Lansing, outside the Ingham County courtroom of Judge William Collette, Saturday, March 22, 2014. McNeilly is a prominent Michigan Republican Party strategist. (AP Photo/The Detroit News, Chad Livengood)
The change is being spurred far away from Washington by state party officials and local GOP operatives who believe that it no longer makes political sense to block attempts to expand marriage rights to gay men and lesbians.
Illinois Republicans last weekend ousted party officials who disagreed with a former state party chairman's support for same-sex marriage. Nevada Republicans just days ago removed language from the party platform regarding whether gay men and lesbians should marry. A new fundraising committee supporting pro-gay marriage GOP congressional candidates announced last week that it raised more than $2 million in the first quarter from wealthy Republican donors who support gay rights. Even Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), an outspoken social conservative critic of gay rights, said in a recent BuzzFeed interview that I think we need to concede that theres been a real shift of public opinion on marriage."
Fred Sainz, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, agreed that a tectonic shift is taking place in the Republican Party on marriage equality. He cited several polls showing shifting support and the growing number of lawmakers in favor of dropping opposition even as top leaders remain opposed. For the Republican hierarchy it's a very straightforward question, Sainz said. How can they attract the next generation of voters and not support an issue young people have made their minds up on?
Half of all Americans believe that gay men and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released in March. But Republicans and conservatives are about the only demographic or political group still opposed to same-sex marriage. Fifty-four percent of Republicans oppose legal gay marriage, while 40 percent approve it, according to the poll. That compares with 70 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents who support it.
But a recent Pew Research poll suggested a stark generational divide among Republicans on the subject. More than six in 10 Republicans and "Republican leaners" under age 30 favor same-sex marriage, while just 35 percent oppose it. By contrast, just 27 percent of Republicans ages 50 and older favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry, the Pew poll found.
Those findings encourage Tyler Deaton, a 28-year old GOP activist in Concord, N.H. Hes leading Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry, a national network that hopes to raise $1 million by the summer of 2016 and convince the Republican National Committee to drop anti-gay language from the national GOP party platform during the presidential nominating convention.
I think were going to be successful, I think that this is the right time, that if the party wants to grow, then for the party to reach new voters, this is a necessary change, Deaton said. I think well have a new platform in 2016 that is much more inclusive to gay people.
Nationally, none of the Republican governors or lawmakers mentioned as possible presidential candidates publicly supports same-sex marriage. Ten Republican senators voted with Democrats last year to ban workplace discrimination against gay and transgender workers, but House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other top Republicans leaders oppose the Senate bill and same-sex marriage.