Break the Republican brand

Republicans successfully broke the Democratic brand with rural voters. Democrats should do the same with suburbanites.

A few cycles ago, I worked for an incumbent candidate in a rural part of the state. He ran as a Democrat despite an effort by Republicans to get him to switch parties. He had served in office for almost two decades and his family had been heavily involved in the community, serving on boards and committees, playing and coaching sports, and leading Sunday school classes. He was so popular that he garnered the support of Republican leaders across the district.

And yet he lost. Badly. When he asked one of those Republican leaders why he thought he had done so poorly, the man replied, “We’ve spent a lot of time and money convincing those people not to vote for Democrats.”

Republicans broke the Democratic brand in rural North Carolina and most of rural America. They convinced people that Democrats were trying to impose their values on country folks. They wrapped prejudices and fears around Democratic positions. From gay rights to immigration to guns to abortion, Republicans convinced rural voters that Democrats were trying to destroy their way of life.

Republicans built up a powerful information ecosystem to spread their fear. Talk radio, Fox News, and conservative websites convinced rural Americans that Democrats are coming for the guns. They’re replacing white voters with brown ones from Mexico and Central America. They’re destroying churches, scouting, and schools by forcing conservative communities to allow LGBT+ to live openly and expressively instead of quietly and subdued.

Democrats in North Carolina should take note. They should break the Republican brand with suburban voters just like Republicans broke the Democratic brand with rural ones. Republicans are coming for your public schools, taking half a billion dollars out of public schools and giving it to private ones. They are trying to make abortion illegal from the moment of conception. And they want to flood our streets with even more guns.

Just this week, Franklin County schools announced they are eliminating school librarians. The state is losing teachers at an alarming rate. Republicans have left North Carolina schools with among the lowest per pupil spending in the nation. Our teachers among the lowest paid. Instead of stepping in to help these struggling schools, Republicans are taking away $500 million.

Republicans have also sided the book-bans. They’re letting conservative religious groups decide which books are appropriate for our children to read. Talk about a nanny-state.

With the end of Roe v. Wade, Republicans in North Carolina have already made abortion illegal after 12 weeks. Other Republicans want to take it further. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, says that life begins at conception and there should be no exceptions, even for rape or incest. Next, they are going after birth control and in vitro fertilization. Talk about interfering with the right to privacy.

Finally, Republicans believe, against all research, that more guns make us safer. They want to remove common-sense regulations like permits to carry concealed weapons. Republicans have successfully flooded the zone with guns and suicides, homicides, and accidental deaths have sky-rocketed. Their solution to these problems is, of course, more guns.

Democrats should be attacking the Republican brand in suburbia, pushing the notion that conservative Republicans want to impose their narrow view of the world onto people who generally just want to be left alone. Republicans are going after public schools that are already struggling. They’re going to going force you to have children whether you’re ready or not. After decades of teen pregnancies declining, expect them to start growing again. And they are going to increase gun violence by making guns even more accessible and omnipresent.

Democrats should not be waiting until late summer to begin attacking the Republican brand. And they shouldn’t stop after November. They should talking to suburban North Carolinians year-round. They need to invest in an infrastructure that can reach people where they live, all the time. That’s what conservatives have done.

Unfortunately, progressive billionaires and leaders are not as savvy as their conservative counterparts. They expect Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other pro-choice groups to educate people about abortion. They’ve left talking about schools up to pro-public school groups like NCAE. They’ve delegated the gun argument to Everytown or Moms Demand Action. What they’ve missed is that the problem is not schools or abortion or guns. The problem is Republicans.

Right now, North Carolina Democrats have a very unique opportunity. Republicans have nominated an extreme group of candidates for statewide office. The North Carolina Democratic Party, the DNC, and affiliated progressive organizations should use these extremists to launch an on-going effort to break the Republican brand with suburban voters. Suburbanites should be getting mailings, TV ads, digital ads, and flyers now, not down the stretch of the campaign.

If the election becomes extremist Mark Robinson against Josh Stein or wackadoodle Michele Morrow against Mo Green, Democrats have missed a huge opportunity. Mark Robinson and Michele Morrow should become symbols of what the GOP today believes. The conversation about their extremism should be tied to the extreme legislation pushed by Republicans everywhere. They want to impose their values and conservative view of the world onto suburban votes who just want to be left alone. Democrats need to scare suburbanites just like Republicans scared rural voters. Attack the brand, not just the candidates.