The campaign arm of Congressional Democrats plans to attack House Republicans using populist benchmarks, per a memo from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). The strategy revolves around a paid media campaign highlighting votes that threatened U.S. manufacturing jobs “in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas,” as well as cutting veteran’s services, defunding law enforcement, gutting manufacturing jobs, and even – ironically – upholding a culture of corruption in Washington.
The memo even mentions Republicans who ignore “the kitchen table issues like lowering costs and creating good-paying jobs,” in a sure sign that even the left, ahead of establishment Republicans, understand that Donald Trump’s America First populist message is a vote winner.
One specific example is H.R.2811 (the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023) – legislation they refer to as the ‘Default on America Act’ – alongside a handful of bills that comprise the House GOP budget proposal.
The DCCC memo also details a plan to drive a wedge between more establishment candidates and the GOP’s pro-Trump MAGA base. The memo appears to tacitly acknowledge that former President Donald Trump and his populist policies remain popular among both Republican, independent, and even Democrat voters – and that House Republicans who have departed from that message in favor of a return to Romney-Ryanism are vulnerable.
The memo makes no mention of a scenario where long-shot candidate Ron DeSantis is the Republican nominee, though it is reasonable to assume Democrats would his less-than-populist votes in Congress – including support for U.S. job outsourcing via Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership – to paint the candidate as out-of-step with his own base.
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