Pundit Hannity on target with claim about GOP and Obamacare repeal

Now that the Republicans have won control in the Senate, one of the biggest questions is what they will do on health care. Fox News host Sean Hannity hammered home one strategy in his post-election analysis Nov. 5.

Talking to Republican Louisiana U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, who is in a runoff with incumbent Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, Hannity said, “Every single candidate like yourself running for office said you will vote to repeal and replace Obamacare.”

Later, in an interview with Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, Hannity said, “Every candidate that won in the Senate promised to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Hannity said.

And he made the same point with Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner, who defeated incumbent Democrat Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado. “Every Republican that won elections last night, including yourself, you said repeal/replace Obamacare.”

Here we’re focusing on the 10 new Republicans joining the Senate. (The outcomes of races in Alaska and Louisiana are still pending.)

By and large, Hannity has a point.

The list

David Perdue - Georgia: Posted on his campaign website, "We need to repeal Obamacare and replace it with more affordable free market solutions."

Joni Ernst - Iowa: Posted on her campaign website, "Joni is staunchly opposed to the Obamacare law. Joni supports immediate action to repeal Obamacare and replace it with common sense, free-market alternatives."

Thom Tillis - North Carolina: Posted on his campaign website, "As North Carolina's U.S. senator, Tillis will push for repeal of Obamacare, a balanced budget, and conservative economic policy." In the most literal sense, Tillis fails to say he would replace the Affordable Care Act. The closest he comes is a vague promise "to work to implement private sector solutions to reduce health care costs for North Carolinians."

Ben Sasse - Nebraska: In listing his agenda on his campaign website, Sasse included "repeal Obamacare." Sasse doesn't precisely say he would replace it, but he does list familiar Republican health care policy options such as allowing people to buy insurance across state lines and making health savings accounts more financially attractive.

Mike Rounds - South Dakota: Posted on his campaign website, "Mike opposes Obamacare and would work to repeal and replace it with market-based, patient-centered solutions."

Tom Cotton - Arkansas: PolitiFact explored Cotton's opposition to Obamacare and found several statements like this one on his congressional website, "I will fight to repeal and replace Obamacare with free-market reforms that empower patients and doctors to make health-care decisions. … Obamacare must be repealed entirely."

James Lankford - Oklahoma: Posted to his Senate campaign website "More than 55 times in the past three years I have voted to repeal, replace or delay the Obamacare law." Further down on that page, Lankford wrote, "I am a co-sponsor of the conservative replacement for Obamacare HR 3590. I am also the author of the only alternative that completely returns the oversight of health care back to the states."

Cory Gardner - Colorado: Posted a petition to repeal Obamacare on his campaign website. The section on that site that summarized Gardner's record said, "He supports legislation that repeals this misguided law and replaces it with a solution that allows the purchase of insurance across state lines, bolsters state high-risk pools to provide for those with pre-existing conditions, and enacts badly needed tort reform to reduce medical costs, among other ideas."

Shelley Moore Capito - West Virginia: During an October debate, Capito said, "What I would vote for is to repeal and replace. I voted for that 50 times but I also recognize that the ACA has some very good things about it." Capito went on to say she supported the ban on denying insurance for pre-existing conditions and giving parents the chance to keep kids on their plans until they turn 26.

Steve Daines - Montana: When Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced her resignation, Daines said, "While Secretary Sebelius' resignation is a good start, it's not enough — we need to repeal Obamacare before further harm comes to Montana families, and replace it with Montana-driven reforms that put the patient and their doctor — not government bureaucrats — in charge of health care decisions."

Our ruling

Hannity said that the new Republican senators campaigned on a platform to repeal and replace Obamacare. All 10 new Republican senators said during their campaigns either that Obamacare should be repealed or that they had voted to repeal it.

The record on replacement is a little more nuanced. Republicans generally either explicitly say they want to replace Obamacare or more generally talk about health policy changes they support or parts of the Affordable Care Act that they’d like to keep.

Bottom line, Hannity is clearly right on the trend line. We rate his claim Mostly True.