With eyes on taking back the House next year, Democrats next week will unveil the opening phase of their 2018 messaging strategy, party leaders announced Wednesday.
The lawmakers are dropping few hints about what their “Better Deal” message may entail, but taking a lesson from the success of President Trump’s no-frills “America First” mantra, they say they’re shooting for brevity.
“As Democrats we’re all too happy to talk about everything that we stand for, [but] talking about 23 separate issues to the electorate before an election is overwhelming and you have to punch through the clutter of what everybody else is saying,” Rep. Linda Sanchez (Calif.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol. {mosads}
“That seems to be our shortcoming. … We want to get into the weeds because, on the issues, we know that we are fighting for what a majority of America wants,” she added. “We just haven’t successfully convinced them of that, because we are too detail oriented.”
Last year, much of the Democrats’ strategy hinged on attacking Trump in hopes that the many controversies swirling around the GOP presidential candidate would damage down-ballot Republicans. That design largely failed, and many Democrats are already warning party leaders not to repeat the mistake in 2018.
Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus, said leaders have heard the message loud and clear.
“Waiting just for Trump to implode — or to think we can win an election just because we’re opposed to him — without being for something, will not work,” Crowley said.
“What will work is Democrats having a message that appeals to the average American.”
The Democrats are also stinging from four special-election defeats this year, which have only heightened their urgency in locating a message that rings true with voters in the purple districts they’ll need to pick up in order to win back the Speaker’s gavel.
Crowley said the messaging roll-out will come in waves, with next week’s preliminary launch to be followed later by “meat-on-the-bones” policy specifics.
The Democrats had won control of the House in 2006 using a catchy “Six for ’06” campaign slogan that laid out simple policy prescriptions they vowed to adopt immediately if voters gave them the majority. Then, as now, the party was led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who pitched her 2006 success as a chief reason for her return to the leadership ranks this year after four straight losing election cycles.
“It’s going to be about legislation, it’s going to be about policy that people can sink their teeth into and really get behind,” Crowley said.
The Democrats have history behind them, as the party controlled by the White House has lost House seats in an overwhelming majority of midterm elections stretching back nearly two centuries. The Democrats are also buoyed by the fact that most of their policy priorities — from job creation to immigration reform to healthcare spending — are supported by an overwhelming majority of voters in national polls.
Their challenge is to translate that policy agenda into election victories.
“We’re not searching for an agenda. … Democrats have always known what we stood for,” Sanchez said. “Messaging is something different. It’s a way, in terms of communicating that with people in a way that resonates.
“That’s the process that’s currently being worked on,” she added. “How do we effectively communicate our values and what we stand for?”