Democrats Keep Playing the Trump Card to Win Elections
By: By Mark Kelly
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Joe Biden and the Democratic Party won in 2020 by campaigning on two main issues: Donald Trump ’s personality and his administration’s handling of Covid-19. Today, Democrats are doubling down on that strategy. They realize that the specter of the former president will be more effective than any policy at turning out Democratic voters in next year’s midterm elections.
“Virginia voters might well think Donald Trump is on the ballot,” said journalist Susan Page while moderating a gubernatorial debate between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin on Sept. 16. Her question to Mr. McAuliffe: “Why have so many of your paid ads and your rhetoric mentioned Trump in an election focused on the people of Virginia and an election that presumably should be focused on your own proposals for what you would do as governor?”
“Because my opponent is a Trump wannabe,” Mr. McAuliffe replied. He then quoted his opponent’s claim that Mr. Trump was “so much of the reason why I’m running.”
“That’s his quote,” Mr. McAuliffe said. “So he’s the one who’s inserted Donald Trump here. And we know the damage that Donald Trump has done to this country.”
Getting the Trump label to stick to opposition candidates is a strategy that’s already working for Democrats. Polling in September’s California recall election was initially close, but then Gov. Gavin Newsom stopped running on his own record and started campaigning against Mr. Trump.
“ Larry Elder not only supported Donald Trump, he’s to the right of Donald Trump,” said Mr. Newsom at a rally on Sept. 7, distorting the Republican candidates views and turning the election into a referendum on the alternative.
“He’s the clone of Donald Trump,” President Biden told a rally in Long Beach, Calif., on Sept. 14. “Can you imagine him being governor of this state?”
“The 2018 midterms were a referendum on Donald Trump’s governance, and Democrats won back the House for the first time in eight years” says Jason Willick, a Journal editorial page writer. “In November 2020, Trump lost the White House. But Republicans looked poised to keep the Senate, until the president made the 2021 Georgia special elections about himself. Then Republicans lost both seats and control of the upper chamber.”
No one knows whether Mr. Trump will run again in 2024, but his persistent claim that the 2020 election was stolen puts Republicans running this year and in 2022 in a tough spot. If they say they agree with Mr. Trump about the allegedly stolen election, they risk losing support from Republicans and independents who dislike sore losers and want elections to be about the future. But if they say the election was free and fair, they could lose support from Mr. Trump’s ardent supporters and his endorsement.
The Democrats’ strategy also explains why those who pushed the Russian-collusion narrative now want to keep the investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot front and center.
“ Nancy Pelosi made certain to get a committee that would guarantee a one-sided report right in time for midterms,” says Kimberley Strassel, the Journal’s Potomac Watch columnist and a member of its editorial board. “She’s stacked it with Democrat partisans like Adam Schiff. She blocked Republican picks so there’s no real balance. Instead of getting real answers about Jan. 6, this is just another political exercise aimed at keeping Trump the issue.”
In both the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Mr. Trump ran as a kind of anti-politician, who would clean up the Washington swamp, memorably telling Mr. Biden, “You’re a politician. I ran because of you.”
Today, Mr. Trump’s focus on the past and on denying his defeat in 2020 is dividing the GOP and helping the opposition.
“You’ve said the most important issue facing Virginia is election integrity,” said Mr. McAuliffe, playing his Trump card in the first Virginia debate, “That’s the Trump crazy 2020 stuff.”
Mr. Kelly is the Journal editorial page’s senior producer.