With all signs pointing to a red wave in next week’s midterm elections, Democrats are already in the process of stomping their feet and beginning the finger-pointing ahead of the anticipated losses that some political experts predict could be of pretty epic proportions.
For instance, some Democratic strategists have suggested that the real problem in some key House races is not the Democrat nominees themselves but the state’s governors, who the strategists say are “dragging down the rest of the ballot”:
With a week to go before the midterm elections, some Democratic operatives working on House races are already beginning to assign blame in the event their party loses winnable seats: The culprit, they say, is blue-state governors dragging down the rest of the ballot.[…]”There is a direct correlation between the performance of [New York Gov.] Kathy Hochul and [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and the effect it’s having on House candidates,” a Democratic strategist working on House campaigns told Axios.”I think Republicans are noticing this too, especially in New York. They’re not even running ads anymore with Pelosi and Biden. They’re running ads with Kathy Hochul,” the strategist added. “Unless Hochul and Newsom pick it up, we’re going to lose House seats.”Newsom has been criticized for focusing more on his national aspirations than his safe California re-election, including by picking fights with the Republican governors of Florida and Texas.The strategist also cited Oregon Gov. Kate Brown — who Morning Consult polling suggests is the nation’s most unpopular governor — as another drag on the ticket in a state where Democrats have had acute difficulties.
Axios also wrote that other strategists suggested Hochul’s “apparent unpreparedness for a highly competitive campaign has had a clear down-ballot effect,” with two recent polls showing the race against her GOP opponent Lee Zeldin is neck and nick as he hammers away at the dismal Democratic record on crime in the deep blue state.
The New York Times reported that some top Democrats are blaming messaging – specifically, the party’s inability “to coalesce around one effective message”:
Top Democratic officials, lawmakers and strategists are openly second-guessing their party’s campaign pitch and tactics, reflecting a growing sense that Democrats have failed to coalesce around one effective message with enough time to stave off major losses in the House and possibly decisive defeats in the tightly contested Senate.[…]Even among the kibitzing chorus, there’s little agreement over exactly what could cost the party control of Congress. In areas where victory depends on high Black voter turnout, Democrats worry that they are not mobilizing that constituency. Others say there has been too much focus on abortion rights and too little attention on worries about crime or the cost of living. And across the country, Democrats point to an inadequate economic message and an inability to effectively herald their legislative accomplishments.“The truth is, Democrats have done a poor job of communicating our approach to the economy,” said Representative Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan who is in one of this year’s most competitive races. “I have no idea if I’m going to win my election — it’s going to be a nail biter. But if you can’t speak directly to people’s pocketbook and talk about our vision for the economy, you’re just having half a conversation.”
The Times also noted that former President Obama recently “urged Democrats not to be ‘a buzz kill’ by making people feel as if they were ‘walking on eggshells’ when it came to issues like race and gender.” Obama has previously given speeches decrying the party’s wokeward lurch.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a twice-failed Democrat-supported candidate for president, was among several left-wing politicos who said last month they believed BidenCo. were putting too much of an emphasis on abortion and not enough on the kitchen-table issues that matter to most Americans:
“I don’t believe [abortion] can be the only issue,” Sanders told “CNN Tonight with Jake Tapper” in a recent interview.“At a time when we have an economy in which the wealthiest people, the billionaire class, are getting much, much richer while working people are struggling to put food on the table, it goes without saying that we have to focus on the economy,” he said.
For once, Sanders is right – at least as far as what issue ranks highest in the minds of the American people right now. As the old James Carville saying goes, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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