WASHINGTON, D.C. — Among the neatly kept yards in Westerville, Ohio—a suburb of Columbus—yard signs signal support for both Democrats and Republicans.

“I look at the person too, besides being whatever party that I’m at. I look to see what they’ve done, what they’re going to do, what they say they’re going to do,” said Connie, a resident of the neighborhood, as she did some work in her garage.

Connie, who did not want to share her last name, said she planned to vote for Bernie Moreno, the Republican candidate for Senate. But Moreno can’t take votes like hers for granted.

Suburban women have long been a coveted voting bloc for politicians of both parties. For decades, they were largely defined as white suburban mothers. In recent years, the group has become more diverse, but still tends to share some views.

One enduring trend among suburban women is support for abortion access, especially since federal abortion protections ended when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 77% of suburban women think abortion should be legal in most or all cases.

That statistic poses a challenge for Republican candidates like Moreno, who has said he supports a federal 15-week abortion ban. He has added, though, that he would respect the will of Ohio voters, who last year enshrined abortion rights into the state constitution.

“Of course you see a lot about abortion and laws. In my point of view, I’m never going to apologize to say that life is sacred,” Moreno said at a recent campaign stop outside Genoa Church in Westerville.

That stance may play into why just 41% of small city and suburban women support Moreno, while 58% support Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, according to an October Marist poll.

Moreno is now courting the key voting bloc by broadening his pitch to tout family-friendly policies.

“What we're going to do at the federal level that's expensive to have kids, as expensive to raise them. I have a friend of mine looking to adopt right now. It's almost $70,000 to adopt,” Moreno said. “Let's make that a lot less expensive. Those are the things that bring the country together.”

Moreno’s efforts are complicated by some of his own comments. Last month at a town hall in Warren County, he said suburban women who base their vote on abortion access are “a little crazy.”

Moreno may have also alienated some moderate Republicans. Leading up to the Republican primary in March, he criticized Republicans who don’t support Donald Trump as “RINOs,” or Republicans in name only.

“If you think that the Republican Party should be the party of Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney, then maybe I’m not for you,” he said at the March 6 Republican primary debate.

Moreno is now hoping to win back the 9% of Ohio Republicans who plan to vote for Brown, according to the Marist poll.

“We have the entirety of the Republican Party here because I’m proud that we have a big, broad tent. Everybody is welcome in the Republican Party,” Moreno said.

Recent polls show Brown and Moreno are essentially tied. If Moreno can lift his support among suburban women by just a few percentage points, that could spell the difference in his Senate bid.