Summary
- Affordability is defining the election, with voters focused on housing, groceries, gas, and health care.
- Democrats hold an edge on the economy, even as voters remain skeptical of socialism.
- Republicans have an opening to contrast their agenda with socialist policies such as rent control and government-run grocery stores.
A growing number of socialist candidates are running for Congress this year, promising to bring radical changes to Washington, D.C. They’ve embraced a nickname, “The Bloc,” and an ambitious agenda of far-left policies aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.
Fortunately, a majority of voters in America’s swing states hold an unfavorable opinion of socialism, even as some DSA-endorsed candidates find political success in pockets of America.
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Americans for Prosperity, a grassroots organization, interviewed about 10,000 swing-state voters and found that 56% of them have unfavorable views of socialism, a number that increased six percentage points from AFP’s September survey.
Meanwhile, 59% of those same voters said the Democratic Party is controlled by far-left socialists. That number is up nine percentage points since September.
What Voters Think About Socialism
AFP’s findings are different from a traditional public opinion poll. The organization deploys grassroots activists to speak directly with voters, including in competitive Senate states such as New Hampshire, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and Alaska.
“This is not a traditional polling survey,” Emily Seidel, president and CEO of Americans for Prosperity and a senior adviser to AFP Action, told the Daily Signal. “This is a report of what we hear directly from those Americans,” based on conversations with about 10,000 people in some of the country’s most competitive Senate races.
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“The good news is that 56% of the people that we talked to have an unfavorable opinion of socialism,” Seidel said. “In addition, 59% of these folks see the Democratic Party for what it is in this moment. They see that it is essentially controlled by the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party.”
Those findings would seemingly put Republicans in a strong position to campaign against the socialist left. But Seidel said there’s another set of numbers Republicans can’t afford to ignore.
‘This Is a Cost of Living Election’
“This is a cost of living election,” Seidel said. “And it has been a cost of living election for over a year.”
In AFP’s conversations with voters, Seidel said Americans consistently raise concerns about the expenses affecting their everyday lives.
“Everybody is concerned about cost of living, and they want a plan for what the candidates will do to actually solve for the cost of housing, the cost of gas, the cost of groceries,” she said. “You knock on any door in America, that’s what you’re gonna hear about.”
Seidel cited polling showing about 84% of Americans consider the cost of living one of their top issues. She said AFP has been encouraging candidates to put affordability solutions at the center of their campaigns.
That still might not be enough to save Republicans, however.
“Three years ago, Republicans were more trusted on the economy and inflation by double digits, [a] 21-point trust advantage for Republicans over Democrats,” Seidel said. “But today, Democrats hold a slight edge in trust on that issue.”
Seidel attributed that shift in part to frustration among Americans who have struggled with higher costs for an extended period.
“That is in part the impact of just the length of time that voters have been struggling to stretch their paychecks across every element of the cost of living,” she said.
‘It’s Not Enough to Just Attack Socialism’
That presents Republicans with an opportunity.
Seidel said candidates need to offer voters tangible solutions to their economic concerns, pointing to removing government regulations that stand in the way of housing construction and expanding domestic energy production as examples.
“Those are the kinds of solutions that voters want to hear about,” she said.
The same principle applies when Republicans talk about socialism, particularly with younger Americans.
“It’s not enough to just attack socialism at the surface level,” Seidel said. “You have to talk about what it actually is.”
She pointed to rent control and government-funded grocery stores as examples.
“You have to go through the conversation to explain why it won’t work,” Seidel said, including “why government-funded grocery stores won’t fix the cost of groceries over time, why government-run health care would be a total disaster, why we can’t solve America’s problems by just … raising taxes on fellow Americans.”
Seidel argued that the contrast gives Republicans an opening, provided they combine criticism of socialism with their own solutions.
“There is an opening for candidates to come forward with a winning message by contrasting what more can be done and needs to be done to address these issues and their ideas to do that against the radical, crazy, frankly terrifying ideas of the democratic socialists,” she said.
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
