Democrats running for Senate have savaged President Donald Trump, betting that his historically low approval rating will help their party recapture the chamber in November’s midterm elections.
But some Democrats running in Republican-leaning states are also criticizing another unpopular institution: their own party.
In North Carolina, Roy Cooper is boasting in ads that “he bucked his party to oppose defunding the police” while he was governor.
In Iowa, state Rep. Josh Turek debuted an ad this week touting tax cut and gun rights bills as “just some of the more than 700 times Josh Turek voted with Republicans to look out for Iowans.”
And former congresswoman Mary Peltola, who is running in Alaska, pledged in a new ad to “take on anyone, including Democrats” who doesn’t understand her state’s needs.
“They don’t get that resource development is about our survival,” Peltola says in the ad. “They don’t get that firearms are for feeding our families and protecting ourselves — that a secure border keeps all Americans safe.”
The ads reflect the challenge that Democrats are facing in retaking the Senate this year: They need to win in at least five states that Trump carried in 2024, including at least two that he won by double-digit margins.
Trump and Republicans have sought to tarnish the Democratic brand ahead of the midterms by playing up the victories of democratic socialists in several high-profile primaries, warning that Democrats are “communists” who have abandoned moderation.
Democrats are nonetheless optimistic, citing Trump’s unpopularity and persistently high gas prices due to the Iran war. The Cook Political Report shifted its ratings for the open Senate races in Iowa and Texas — both of which Trump carried by more than 13 points — from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up” on Thursday in the latest sign of the strong headwinds facing Republicans.
But Democrats are no more or barely more popular than Trump in some of the states the party is trying to flip.
In North Carolina, for instance, 42 percent of registered voters view the Democratic Party favorably, compared with 56 percent who hold an unfavorable view, according to a Fox News poll conducted last month.
Democrats are only slightly more popular than Trump, of whom 40 percent of voters have a favorable view and 58 percent have an unfavorable view, according to the poll. (The Republican Party is more popular: 48 percent of voters view it favorably and 50 percent view it unfavorably.)
So Democrats in these states are de-emphasizing their party and instead selling themselves as independent, bipartisan, or both.
Cooper’s ads focus on his work with Republicans in the state legislature to strengthen bail laws. Republicans controlled the legislature throughout his time as governor, and his record compromising with them to expand Medicaid and pass more than 500 bipartisan bills is a big part of his campaign message.
Turek, in an interview, also stressed his “hard work behind the scenes” to find common ground with Republicans.
“I worked across the aisle,” he said. “And so I’m very proud that I’m one of the most bipartisan members of the Iowa legislature.”
Turek also criticized Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this month for blocking a farm bill. In a statement at the time, he complained that Democrats “failed” Iowa farmers “by letting perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Peltola, whom Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) twice endorsed in her House races, has made distancing herself from partisanship a pillar of her campaign. Murkowski endorsed Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), Peltola’s principal opponent, in this year’s Senate race.
Cheryl Bruce, Peltola’s campaign manager, said in a statement that voters routinely reported being “sick and tired of Lower 48 partisan politics.”
Republicans have scoffed that Democrats are truly committed to bipartisanship.
“Mary Peltola and Josh Turek own Democrats’ toxic brand of raising taxes on families to bankroll benefits for illegals — and they can’t outrun the crisis their party created,” Bernadette Breslin, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement.
DJ Griffin, a spokesman for Cooper’s opponent, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley, described Cooper in a statement as “one of the most partisan governors in North Carolina history, vetoing more legislation than any NC governor.”
Nate Adams, a spokesperson for Sullivan, said that no matter how many times Peltola bucked her party, she remained an ally of Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader who would be “catastrophic for our state” if the party wins the majority.
Politicians in tough states have long tried to distance themselves from their party — but it’s a difficult feat, especially as voters grow more polarized.
Joe Manchin III, the former Democratic senator from West Virginia, shot a Democratic clean-energy bill with a rifle in a famous 2010 campaign ad. He won by 10 percentage points in an otherwise brutal year for Democrats.
Then-Sen. Claire McCaskill assured Missouri voters in a 2018 ad that she was “not one of those crazy Democrats.”
And then-Sen. Joe Donnelly (Indiana) railed against“socialists” and “the radical left” in a 2018 campaign ad, pledging to help build “President Trump’s border wall.”
Both McCaskill and Donnelly were ousted, as Republicans retained control of the Senate.
Republicans have also tried the gambit. Former Republican senator Mark Kirk, running on the 2016 ballot with Trump in solid-blue Illinois, declared that he “bucked his party to say Donald Trump is not fit to be commander in chief.” He still lost by double digits.
No Republicans have gone that far this year, even as they work to flip two states that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. Trump, though he wants to keep control of the Senate, has punished Republicans who show even slight signs of disloyalty.
But Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) — who’s running in a state that Harris won by seven points — had run ads describing herself as “America’s most bipartisan senator” and making clear that she voted “against the bill to cut Medicaid” — the Republican tax and domestic policy law that Trump and most of the rest of her party have described as a signature achievement.
The Medicaid ad was a response to attack ads that faulted Collins for supporting the bill. (She supported a procedural vote on the bill but voted against final passage due to the Medicaid cuts.)
Collins also voted this month against Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney general nominee. Her opponent, former state Senate president Troy Jackson, insists her breaks with her party will not help her win reelection.
“Maine voters aren’t stupid, and they see the game that Susan Collins is playing,” Maggie Amjad, a Jackson spokeswoman, said in a statement. “The vast majority of Collins’ votes — 96% of the time — have been with Donald Trump.”
Dan Merica contributed to this report.
The post Seeking to flip Senate, Democrats are running ads to criticize their own appeared first on Washington Post.
