A pro-life Democrat is leading in the polls in a very liberal U.S. Congressional race in New York, and the New York Times cannot figure out why.
The newspaper recently highlighted the Rev. Rubén Díaz Sr.’s campaign for the 15th Congressional District, which is located in the Bronx, and his conservative views on abortion and marriage.
“It’s America’s bluest House seat. How is this man a top contender?” the newspaper wondered.
The Democratic Party has aligned itself closely with the abortion industry and adoped radical positions that most Americans oppose, including support for taxpayer-funded abortions and late-term abortions.
And yet Díaz — a strong, vocal pro-life advocate — is the front runner in the upcoming Democratic primary election, leading 11 other candidates, according to the newspaper.
A Pentecostal minister and New York City councilman, Díaz is proudly pro-life. During his political career, he repeatedly has stood up against his party’s pro-abortion agenda.
In 2008 when he was a state senator, Díaz criticized his fellow Democrat lawmakers for opposing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on partial-birth abortions. He thanked the Supreme Court for allowing the U.S. to outlaw the cruel practice.
“I am sad to see the Senate Democratic Conference criticizing the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on this matter, because partial-birth abortion is such a crime of assassination on our children,” he said at the time. “I am proud to be a Democrat and I am proud to be pro-life. It is our duty as Democrats to represent the true core beliefs of our Democratic party – to stand up for the weakest members of our society and offer them the liberties we all can enjoy.”
Then, in 2012, he published a lengthy essay about his beliefs on abortion, noting that Hitler was “pro-choice,” the Observer reports. Díaz said abortion is the “killing of unborn babies,” and “there is no doubt in my mind that life starts at the time of conception.”
He also chided his party, saying it’s time to “forget about being politically correct by being pro-choice.”
And if he wins the seat in Congress, he is expected to keep standing up to party leadership. As the New York Times put it:
His prospects in the June 23 primary have put Democratic officials on edge. If Mr. Díaz were to win, he would create a headache for the party and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, handing an otherwise reliable Democratic seat to an apostate who would gleefully buck party leadership. …
Ritchie Torres, a city councilman and another leading Democratic candidate, said it would be a “cruel irony” if a “Trump Republican” took over a district that delivered the highest share of the vote to Hillary Clinton (93.7 percent) in America.
Melissa Mark-Viverito, another candidate, even called his candidacy “an insult,” saying Díaz “defies everything I believe in.”
But that apparently is not what voters in the Bronx think. According to the report, the district is primarily Hispanic, but there also is a large African American population. Polls indicate Hispanics are strongly pro-life.
The race is not won yet, but it says a lot that Díaz is ahead in the polls. It adds to the evidence of a strong disconnect between Democrat Party leaders’ position on abortion and that of the average voter. Polls consistently show that most voters do not support the Democrat Party’s radical pro-abortion agenda, and Democrat voters have been speaking out against the party’s abortion radicalism.
If Díaz wins, it would be a sign of hope – and a huge signal to the party that voters want more pro-life candidates.
