Terry Cosgrove's Divided Personal PAC Legacy
Pro-choice group PersonalPAC President and CEO Terry Cosgrove has announced his retirement following the 2022 election cycle. He has long been a thorn in the side of moderate Republicans.
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OPINION
Terry Cosgrove, the President and CEO of PersonalPAC, announced last week he’s retiring after the 2022 cycle. Outsiders probably don’t know who he is, but those of us who have ever been in a contested campaign know the kind of impact Cosgrove and PersonalPAC can have on a race.
The PAC, which has never had any JB Pritzker/Ken Griffin/Richard Uihlein style sugar daddies, has been the campaign arm of all pro choice candidates for as long as I’ve been around and longer. They’ve spent millions boosting pro-choice. Democrats. Liberals look at Cosgrove as a hero. Conservatives, well, they don’t.
"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as President and CEO of Personal PAC for the past 33 years and to be able to devote my life to protecting the reproductive rights and the ability of all women to shape their lives, dreams and aspirations in the same manner as men. Reproductive rights are fundamental human rights, without which we cannot claim to be a real democracy," Cosgrove said in a statement yesterday.
Unfortunately, there is zero room for nuance. Even a pro-life Republican who pledged not to touch abortion legislation was treated as if they were evil to the future of women.
One of my best friends ran for office years ago and was attacked for being anti-abortion because she didn’t fill out PersonalPAC’s survey, even though she pledged not to touch abortion legislation. There is no wiggle room when you have an issue that is more complicated to many people than “all abortion all the time” or “no abortions ever.”
I don’t think public policy can advance very far if we’re always playing a zero sum game. Unless you’re Cosgrove, who has helped elect a lot of candidates who agree with him.
