Republicans are dusting off a familiar playbook this midterm cycle, flooding the airwaves with soft-on-crime attacks against Democratic candidates nationwide. New Democratic polling suggests there’s a single word that could blunt the whole strategy: corruption.
GOP candidates from Mississippi to Michigan have leaned hard into crime-focused messaging, tying rivals to old “defund the police” rhetoric or attacking their records as former prosecutors, Politico reported. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is hammering Democratic opponent Scott Colom over crime rates during his tenure as district attorney, while a House GOP-aligned super PAC has branded Michigan candidate Christina Hines “the kind of liberal prosecutor criminals just love.” Similar attacks are hitting Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin, Christina Bohannan in Iowa, and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s pivotal Senate race.
GOP pollster Whit Ayres explained why Republicans keep returning to the tactic given the party’s broader struggles this cycle. “Focusing on crime is more helpful than talking about gas prices,” he said.
But the strategy is showing real cracks. Republican Michael Whatley has built much of his North Carolina Senate campaign around blaming former Gov. Roy Cooper for prisoner releases and crime, including crime that wasn’t even in his state. The attacks haven’t dented Cooper’s standing, who’s stayed ahead in every poll. Sen. Thom Tillis, whose retirement created the open seat, told CNN the tactic amounts to an unforced error, and separately suggested to Politico that voters have largely tuned the messaging out.
Democrats aren’t just playing defense, either. El-Sayed is airing ads touting his support from local sheriff’s deputies, while gun-safety group Giffords PAC has launched a $10 million ad campaign tying Rogers and several House Republicans to the gun lobby. A new survey for Giffords, conducted by Democratic pollster Global Strategy Group, found a path forward for Democrats on the issue: pairing tougher talk on crime prevention and support for police with a broader pivot toward attacking Republican corruption.
Giffords Executive Director Emma Brown said the findings point to a real chance to break a pattern that’s historically favored Republicans.
“I think we have a real opportunity here to break that cycle,” Brown said.
The crime messaging fight is unfolding against a rockier broader landscape for the GOP. According to Axios, a pollster briefing operatives and donors at the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s Sea Island retreat this weekend suggested the party could actually grow its Senate majority in November, a forecast one attendee reportedly dismissed outright as unrealistic. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court dealt Republicans another setback Friday by again blocking a GOP-drawn congressional map in Missouri, prompting Trump to complain on Truth Social that the court “will just not let Missouri have an Election Victory.”
The post Dems zero in on one word that could sink GOP’s midterm attacks: ‘A real opportunity’ appeared first on Raw Story.
