On abortion, boldly go with the pure pro-life position---the unborn have a right to life, and innocent life requires legal protection. Forget the minutia over trimesters and exceptions, the partisans on the topic know what the core issue is: do you support legal abortion under most or general circumstances, or not? Make your view clear on the core question, or you'll be viewed as slippery by both sides. The pro-choicers are NOT the more flexible side, in my experience, as they never give an inch as to where the unborn get unequivocal legal protection of their right to life that overrides that of the mother. They always view it as 100% rights for the mother, 0% rights for the unborn.
If you want to finesse or nuance anything, you can say that Roe v Wade was badly/incompetently decided (which is true, since it was not constitutional for them to have created the notion of 'trimesters,' or to throw out 50 different states' statutes over a case involving only one state). That will signal (regarding federal appointments) you do not favor robotically pro-Roe judges as a matter of legal incompetence, not just as a "litmus test" matter. You can also assert you are not prescribing a one size fits all solution to questions about how to re-enforce an abortion ban, you just support restoring this question to the states, who will in turn create different legal schemas just as before.
It's a wedge issue, but it's a single issue, meaning it's crucial only to the minority of the electorate whose vote will turn on the issue. Most voters will note your position, but their vote will NOT turn on the issue. Historically, based on decades of elections, it appears single issue voters on abortion break 2-1 pro-life. So as a principled, pro-liberty, constitutional candidate, you might as well break in the direction of life.
Running in a top-two state may be useful in at least one sense---in an extremely Republican or Democratic state, the number two finisher may be simply a second Republican (in the GOP district) or second Democrat (in the Dem district). Meaning, in an open seat scenario, with a small primary turnout and with enough grassroots liberty/CFL/Tea Party coalition support, our candidate could finish 1 or 2 in the primary, instead of the hacks. Rather than plunking around figuring out how to phrase yourself on one position, try to piece together how to put the winning coalition together in your district, and how to get your vote out during the primary.
