This is a good moment to also ask “do I want to understand the core concept?”.

This is a moment where I’m good with ignorance.

Except adjusting for race is not appropriate. They are a significant portion of his constituent population. It may help explain a factor as to why it’s higher in his state. But I’ll bet being in a red state is also a factor given things like doctors fleeing, budget cuts, etc.

Additionally, such stats are prone to reflecting biases in the system rather than actual medically relevant information. Do black women have worse outcomes because of biological reasons, or because they are treated worse. This is one of those stats you have to be careful with because a nontrivial amount of time, it’s damn near proof of racism.

If only states were capable of doing things to improve the lives of their residents above what the nation as a whole can do. Clearly it’s impossible. Woe be this poor powerless state politician.

Your justification doesn’t hold within its own logic. And doesn’t address how blatantly racist the statement itself is.