Pro-life leader Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, will announce Thursday that he will challenge President Barack Obama in the 2012 Democratic primaries.
Terry is perhaps best known to Floridians for his role as the spokesman for Terri Schiavos parents and for his challenge of state Sen. Jim King in the Republican primary in 2006.
My constituency is the millions of pro-life advocates who want to make child-killing illegal from conception until birth, said Terry on Tuesday. My base is those who know that we must show Americans the victims of abortion, in order to restore the full protection of law to unborn babies.
Terry, who has backed graphic ads of abortion procedures before, hopes to run ads during the 2012 NFL playoff games, including the Super Bowl.
America has never truly debated child-killing, because America has never truly seen child-killing, insisted Terry. We will use FEC and FCC laws for federal candidates to bring America face-to-face with this massacre of the innocents.
While pro-life Democrats have prevailed at the state level, they have failed badly in their pursuit of their partys presidential nomination in recent years. While there was talk that then-Gov. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania --who was pro-life, which was why he was denied a speaking opportunity at the 1992 Democratic convention in New York --would challenge incumbent President Bill Clinton in 1996, Caseys health problems prevented a campaign.
Former Florida Gov. Reubin Askew highlighted his pro-life positions when he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, but bowed out after being routed in Iowa and New Hampshire. Former Ambassador Sargent Shriver and New York housewife Ellen McCormack opposed abortion when they sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, but neither proved to be a major factor in slowing down Jimmy Carters march to the White House.
Based on the comments made on Tuesday, Terry seemed more than aware of the obstacles standing in his way.
Will I defeat Mr. Obama? Im not delusional, said Terry. But while I may not defeat him, I can expose the genocide Obama promotes in America and around the world.
Terry added that his campaign had two goals: creating a crisis of conscience for Americans regarding the slaughter of the unborn and thereby hastening the end of legalized child-killing and attacking President Obamas agenda starting with child-killing, but also including our battle against socialism, our enslavement to debt, and more.
While admitting that he is an underdog to knock Obama off in the primaries, Terry included outreach appeals to pro-life voters, Hispanics, Catholics, evangelicals and tea party activists at his campaign's website.
Terrys announcement on Thursday will be in front of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., a few days before the annual March for Life which will be held on Jan. 24.
While there has been talk that Obama could face a challenge from a progressive in the 2012 primaries, the only prominent politician to express any interest in taking him on was former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska who ran for the nomination in 2008.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
