If the economy is the number one issue for midterm voters, why are Democrats still obsessed with the events of Jan. 6, 2021?
You’d think that a focus group or strategy meeting would illuminate just how much of a losing message that would be heading into an election where voters are experiencing the highest inflation in 40 years and the White House leadership seems painfully out of touch about it.
Recent polling data from Harvard-Harris spent a lot of time asking voters about their priorities and whether they align with the priorities of each major political party. The end result is impossible to miss and demonstrates why Democrats are avoiding the debate stage in many instances and having a difficult time connecting with voters this election cycle. Whether it’s the ongoing J6 hearings that nobody’s watching or the Uniter-in-Chief calling half the country “MAGA” terrorists, it’s been a tough fall campaign for Democrats.
Glenn Greenwald, an independent journalist, summed up the charts on Twitter with a pithy observation:
Fascinating new Harvard-Harris poll:
The 3 issues Americans are most worried about: Inflation, Economy/Jobs and Immigration.
People perceive the GOP's top priorities are also those.
But they see that Dems are most obsessed with a 3-hour riot that happened almost 2 years ago: pic.twitter.com/lAPf477hGU
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 16, 2022
Here’s each chart expanded out so you can read them.
First, the list of issues that voters say are the most important issues to them:
Next, the chart showing which issues voters see as the top priorities for the Democratic Party:
Finally, the last chart showing the issues voters perceive as top priorities of the Republican Party:
Note the overlap between the issues that voters say are their top concerns and the issues that voters perceive the Republican Party as caring the most about. It’s really quite simple in terms of speaking to the electorate and speaking to the issues of the day.
Instead, Democrats have descended down what is essentially a death spiral toward the midterms of avoiding the most pressing issues like the plague while focusing their time on things that voters are unconcerned with. As we noted last week, some members of the media are lamenting the fact that voters aren’t equally as concerned about the J6 hearings as they are about grocery store prices.
This is nothing new. Poll after poll for the last six months has pegged the economy as the top issue. Even with the temporary rise of concern over abortion rights, the pendulum swung back toward the economy as the outrage subsided and the new political landscape set in. There will be voters motivated by abortion but they will be outnumbered by voters motivated by the economy and inflation.
President Biden has done nothing to help change the perception that Democrats seem woefully out of step with voters. When questions are posed about the cost of groceries, Biden points to the price of gas going down 12 cents as a rebuttal. The two do not cancel each other out.
If Democrats lose the House and the Senate and several of the major Governor races, it will be very easy to understand why.
