Down the stretch, A more normal midterm

by | Oct 14, 2022 | Editor's Blog | 3 comments

Today, I’ve got a lot of thoughts. If you’re a Democrat or progressive, they aren’t encouraging. Some stem from news stories over the past week and others from a poll that I stumbled upon on Wednesday. 

Overall, I think the political environment in general has taken a turn for the worse for Democrats. Inflation is just too much of an overriding problem for Americans to focus on other dilemmas facing the country. They are sliding back into fairly normal campaign mode where the economy is going to be the driving factor in the election and the party in the White House is going to get the blame. 

The news that inflation did not subside despite the sharp increases in interest rates led me to that conclusion, but it was backed up by the poll I found. Several days ago, I clicked on a link in a Twitter post that took me to a document cloud that seems to be a dumping ground for all kinds of uploaded files. Some are mundane press releases by government agencies or campaigns. Some are reports that have been released to the media. 

The poll was one of those documents. It’s a CNN poll that said Embargoed until 6:00 am Thursday, October 13. I later found a CNN write up of the poll that’s good, but didn’t seem to get much attention. 

The poll offered a glimpse of registered voters, likely voters, and voters in competitive Congressional races. The toplines that focused on likely and registered voters looked pretty good. Democrats hold a three-point lead in the generic ballot in both polls. However, a deeper dive into the cross-tabs and a look at competitive Congressional races shows trouble. 

In competitive Congressional districts, Republican hold a one-point lead, according the poll. The most troubling numbers come from two groups. Among 18-34 year olds, Democrats hold only a seven-point lead. Those voters should be among the strongest Democrats and gave the party an almost 30 point advantage in 2018. Among White, college educated voters, Democrats hold an 11-point edge, but among White, non-college educated voters they face a 29-point deficit, which holds among all registered voters, too. Independents also break for Republicans in the competitive districts 35-31. 

In enthusiasm, Democrats are suddenly getting crushed. Among Democrats in competitive Congressional districts, only 49% say they are enthusiastic about voting while 65% of Republicans say they are enthusiastic. Only a third of voters under 49 years old are enthusiastic to vote and 58% of voters 50-64, the most Republican cohort, are enthusiastic. Finally, 56% of White voters are enthusiastic about voting while only 34% of people of color are fired up. 

The poll highlights the key weakness of the Democratic coalition. Younger voters are an unreliable base. While they carried Democrats in 2018, according to this poll, they are likely to give Republicans a much higher share of their vote this year while coming out in much lower numbers. It’s just one poll, but it’s not encouraging. 

In other news, watching the conclusions of the January 6 Committee is utterly depressing. The President of the United States quite clearly tried to organize a coup to keep himself in power. Yet, he will likely never be held accountable because a majority of one party lives in alternative reality where up is down, winning is losing, and the sky green and the rest of the party will indulge their delusions in return for political gain. The GOP is unwilling to hold anyone in their in own party accountable. Even the ones who will criticize the craziest Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz, won’t criticize those who give Trump and his criminal cabal a pass. 

Finally, Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate are in trouble. In Pennsylvania, John Fetterman’s interview with NBC will likely hurt his candidacy. Fetterman, who had a stroke earlier this year, used a computer to assist in the interview, reading the questions before responding to them. The interviewer, Dasha Burns, made a leading and unnecessary comment before the interview aired, saying she wasn’t sure Fetterman understood their conversation prior to the beginning of the interview. 

While Burns should never have made that comment, Fetterman’s health and cognitive ability will take center stage in the weeks leading up to the election. Unfortunately, that’s politics and a candidate’s health and mental acuity is fair game. Fetterman may be fully capable of performing the duties of U.S. Senator, but it’s up to his campaign to prove that case now—or figure out how to make it a non-issue in the minds of voters. 

His opponent, Dr. Oz, on the other hand, is in the process of redefining himself, looking more moderate and saying less stupid stuff. Last month, he declared he would have certified the election in 2020, taking away an attack that he might be an election denier. Yesterday, he said he agrees with Biden on marijuana reform and says he opposes mandatory minimums. Right now, he seems to have the momentum heading into the final four weeks of the race. 

In Wisconsin, incumbent Republican Ron Johnson seems to be breaking away from Democrat Mandela Barnes. Polls show his small lead starting to grow. Barnes is calling for support from Democrats like Barack Obama and Kamala Harris. He’s ratcheting up attacks on Johnson for his role in January 6, while Johnson is attacking him as soft on crime. 

While Democrats don’t need to win either race to hold the Senate as long as Democratic incumbents win in Georgia and Nevada, they need an insurance state. They should be moving into North Carolina and/or Ohio to at least expand the field. 

Overall, the second week of October is worrisome for Democrats. The momentum and enthusiasm they felt in the summer is fading. The electorate is falling back into familiar patterns and the fundamentals are re-establishing themselves. There’s still time for political winds to shift, since neither side seems poised for a wave, but Republicans won the week.   

3 Comments

  1. Rick Gunter

    Thomas,
    You may be right about all this. Maybe I am expressing my hopes rather than reality. But I believe Americans understand that the Republicans have no plan to deal with an inflation that the last White House adminiistration helped bring about by its egregious handling of the pandemic.
    I also believe lots of Americans understand that Republicans represent the end of democracy in this country. For this aging American, this is the single-most important issue this November. Our generation is being tested as seldom in my nearly 80 year. if we fail, meaning fi we treat this election as a normal one and put the bums back into office, a lot more than an election will be lost by Democrats. The democracy will be lost.
    Disagree with Democrats all you want on policy. This election is about democracy and what kind of country we will have and pass to our heirs. Be better damn not screw this up. This is not a normal election. These are not normal times. Our country is on the line.

  2. Mike Leonard

    What is the deal with this Dr Oz guy, a quack with a TV show that made him filthy rich selling fake medicine? Why bother to go into politics at all, unless he’s another megalomaniac like Trump who wants to be king of the world?

  3. Greg

    If the Republicans take both houses. Trump and his enablers will be indicted. That’s the setup I’m seeing. If I was the Republicans I’d be picking a good reliable candidate for President next cycle. And the Democrats need a younger one too.

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