11.03.21

Democrats Are Whistling Past The Graveyard

Determined To Ignore The Clear Message Voters Are Sending That They Disapprove Of President Biden And Are Concerned About The Economy, Democrats Are Telling Each Other They Will Plow Ahead With Biden’s Reckless Taxing-And-Spending Agenda

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “Last night was a difficult evening for Democrats. The Democratic Party has wildly misread their mandate and let the radical left run the country. Local Democrats let teachers’ unions keep schools shut months longer than necessary and told parents they didn’t get a say in what their kids are learning. Washington Democrats have super-charged inflation, re-created welfare without work requirements, and made America significantly less energy independent. President Biden was only given a 50-50 Senate and a tiny majority in the House, but he decided to let the radical left run the country. Citizens wanted a return to normalcy but have gotten a never-ending series of government-created crises. The American people will not stand for this. That’s what voters told Democrats last night. The results from different parts of the country demonstrate this was in large part a referendum on national issues. Democrats should listen to the voters, drop their reckless taxing and spending spree, and stop trying to ram through a socialist transformation that the American people never asked for.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 11/03/2021)

  • LEADER McCONNELL: “The bill our colleagues are writing behind closed doors is terrible from top to bottom. More debt, more taxes, and more inflation. Fewer options for American families. This reckless taxing and spending spree would hurt families and help China. This radical social takeover is the last thing Americans need and the last thing Americans want. The voters of America just gave our colleagues a preview of that fact last night. They should pull back from the brink while they can.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 11/03/2021)

 

Observers Across The Political Spectrum Say Tuesday’s Elections Were A Serious Rebuke For Democrats: ‘Democrats Would Be Foolhardy To Underestimate What Happened Tuesday,’ ‘A Rough Election Night That Sent Serious Warning Signs That They Have Misjudged The Nation’s Mood,’ ‘The Smart Strategy Would Be To Drop The Bernie Sanders Agenda’

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Virginia Governor’s race on Tuesday is a political thunderclap that should warn Democrats about their ideological overreach…. The rebuke to Democrats was also clear in New Jersey, where Republican Jack Ciattarelli was neck-and-neck Wednesday morning with incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy. Mr. Ciattarelli won back suburban counties in a huge voter swing that pollsters didn’t see coming in a state Joe Biden won by 16 points.” (Editorial, “A Thumping in Virginia,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/03/2021)

  • “Off-year races for Governor aren’t a predictor of 2022, but they should tell Democrats that they’re on a losing path. President Biden ran as a centrist who would unite the country, but he has governed by bowing to the left on nearly everything. He has pushed identity politics and radical spending programs when people care about the soaring price of gasoline. The President’s approval rating has tanked, as independents and even many Democrats have grown disillusioned.” (Editorial, “A Thumping in Virginia,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/03/2021)
  • “The Democratic temptation will be to dismiss their Tuesday thumping as a normal reaction against the party that controls Washington. Congressional leaders will make the case that they must now, more than ever, pass their $4 trillion tax and spending bill lest they demoralize their supporters going into 2022…. But that strategy is volunteering 20 to 30 Democrats in swing suburban districts for political suicide…. Their agenda of record social spending and higher taxes has compromised, with inflation and supply shortages, what should be a booming recovery.” (Editorial, “A Thumping in Virginia,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/03/2021)
  • “The smart strategy would be to drop the Bernie Sanders agenda, settle for the Senate infrastructure bill, and recalibrate to win some bipartisan victories. The Virginia defeat gives Mr. Biden the opening he needs to finally say no to the left. It may be the only way to salvage his Presidency. Senator Joe Manchin and the swing-district House Democrats would do their party a favor by withdrawing support for the Sanders-Pelosi entitlement blowout.” (Editorial, “A Thumping in Virginia,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/03/2021)

THE WASHINGTON POST’s DAN BALZ: “Democrats awoke Wednesday to a sobering reality. A year after celebrating victory in the 2020 elections, their slender congressional majorities are now even more at risk than they feared, and it is not clear that President Biden or his party have a workable plan to rebalance a political landscape tilting significantly against them.” (Dan Balz, “A Sobering Reality Hits Democrats After Tuesday’s Elections Losses,” The Washington Post, 11/03/2021)

  • “It wasn’t just Virginia or New Jersey that suggested Democrats will need to regroup. In races across the country, there were signs that voters see the party as having moved too far to the left, even as its progressive wing has been flexing its muscles. In Virginia, the exit polls showed that a majority of voters said the party is too liberal. New Yorkers elected Democrat Eric Adams as their new mayor after a campaign in which he made public safety a prime issue and presented himself as more centrist than liberal. In Minneapolis, voters overwhelmingly defeated a referendum to dismantle the police department a year after the Black Lives Matter movement had elevated the issue of police reform to the front of the progressive agenda. In Buffalo, Mayor Byron Brown, who lost the primary to socialist India Walton, appeared to have been reelected as a write-in candidate.” (Dan Balz, “A Sobering Reality Hits Democrats After Tuesday’s Elections Losses,” The Washington Post, 11/03/2021)

CNN’s STEPHEN COLLINSON: “Demoralized Democrats need a reckoning after a rough election night that sent serious warning signs that they have misjudged the nation’s mood as their window closes before next year’s midterms. While the party feuds over its vast social spending agenda, Republicans are highlighting issues that preoccupy voters more immediately, like a sluggish economy, high gas prices, expensive groceries, crime rates and concerns about the rights of parents to influence what is taught in schools.” (Stephen Collinson, “Democrats Need A Reckoning After Misjudging The Nation’s Mood,” CNN, 11/03/2021)

  • “The party’s lawmakers in Washington have spent weeks feuding with one another over the most sweeping social spending plan in generations -- a cornerstone of Biden’s agenda…. It likely hasn’t helped that progressives -- who lost out in a series of city elections and ballot initiatives decided on Tuesday -- have been a dominant force in the party in Washington, playing into GOP claims that the President is hostage to far-left influences in his own party.” (Stephen Collinson, “Democrats Need A Reckoning After Misjudging The Nation’s Mood,” CNN, 11/03/2021)

AXIOS: “Voters punish Democrats amid left drift … From Virginia to New Jersey to Minnesota, voters in yesterday’s off-year elections sent Democrats a warning for 2022: There could be a massive backlash to perceptions that progressives are pulling the party too far left…. Republicans pulled off a massive upset in what had been blue-trending Virginia, with cliffhanger results in New Jersey and a rejection of defund-the-police themes in Minneapolis.” (“Voters Punish Democrats Amid Left Drift,” Axios, 11/03/2021)

 

Multiple Exit Polls From Virginia Showed Majorities Of Voters Disapproving Of President Biden And Citing Concerns About The Economy As A Top Issue

ABC NEWS: “Compounding [Former Democrat Governor Terry] McAuliffe’s challenges [in Virginia] are negative views of Biden’s job performance; more Virginia voters disapprove than approve, 54-45%. Intensity, which can influence turnout, is particularly poor for Biden: Nearly twice as many ‘strongly’ disapprove of his work in office, 45%, than strongly approve, 24%.” (“Democrat McAuliffe Facing 52% Unfavorable Numbers In Va. Governor Race, Preliminary Exit Poll Data Shows,” ABC News, 11/02/2021)

NBC NEWS: “NBC News exit polls found the economy was the top issue for Virginia voters … followed by education, taxes, Covid and abortion, in that order.” (“Republican Youngkin Wins Virginia Governor’s Race In Blow To Democrats, NBC News Projects,” NBC News, 11/02/2021)

FOX NEWS: According to a Fox News Virginia voter analysis, 47 percent of respondents approved and 53 percent disapproved of Biden’s handling of his job as president. (Fox News Voter Analysis, 2021 Virginia Gubernatorial Election, 11/02/2021)

 

A Recent New Jersey Poll That Showed An 11 Point Lead For The Democrat Incumbent In The Eventually Neck-And-Neck Race Also Found A Negative Approval Rating For President Biden And Voters Pointing To Economic Concerns

“The poll also finds that Garden State opinion of President Joe Biden … has dropped into negative territory…. Looking at the national picture, President Joe Biden’s job performance rating in the Garden State has dropped into net negative territory – 43% approve and 49% disapprove.” (“Murphy Maintains Lead,” Monmouth University Polling Institute, 10/27/2021)

“From a list of seven different policy areas asked about in the poll, ‘taxes’ emerges, nominally, as the top issue (27%); followed by jobs and the economy (20%), schools and education (16%), and the pandemic (15%). The remaining issues register in the single digits: i.e. crime (7%), abortion (5%), and transportation infrastructure (4%).” (“Murphy Maintains Lead,” Monmouth University Polling Institute, 10/27/2021)

 

A Series Of Recent National Polls Also Show Americans’ Views On The Economy Are Negative, With Almost 60% Disapproving Of President Biden’s Handling Of The Economy

“A majority of Americans now disapprove of President Joe Biden’s job performance, while half give him low marks for competence and uniting the country, according to results from the latest national NBC News poll. What’s more, the survey finds that 7 in 10 adults, including almost half of Democrats, believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction, as well as nearly 60 percent who view Biden’s stewardship of the economy negatively just nine months into his presidency.” (“Biden’s Job Rating Sinks To 42 Percent In NBC News Poll A Year From Midterms,” NBC News, 10/31/2021)

‘Americans’ Opinions On The U.S. Economy Have Soured Noticeably In The Past Month … As The Cost Of Goods Is Rising Nationwide’

“Americans’ opinions on the U.S. economy have soured noticeably in the past month, a new poll finds, with nearly half expecting economic conditions to worsen in the next year. Just 35% of Americans now call the national economy good, while 65% call it poor, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.” (“Americans Sour On Economy Amid Inflation Woes: AP-NORC Poll,” The Associated Press, 11/01/2021)

“Americans’ confidence in the economy continues to weaken, and their mentions of a variety of economic issues as the nation’s most important problem are rising … These findings, from an Oct. 1-19 Gallup poll, come when there has been a sharp rise in the U.S. inflation rate, to a 13-year high …” (“Job Market Ratings Set Record, But Economic Confidence Slides,” Gallup, 10/27/2021)

  • “The most recent dip in confidence is largely owing to a five-point increase in the percentage of Americans saying the economy is getting worse, from 63% to 68%.... In September, 63% of independents said economic conditions were getting worse, and in October, that grew to 72%. Three-quarters of Americans rate current economic conditions in the country as only fair (42%) or poor (33%), and 68% say the economy is getting worse.” (“Job Market Ratings Set Record, But Economic Confidence Slides,” Gallup, 10/27/2021)

 

Yet Following This Clear Repudiation Of Their Governance, Democrats Are Defiantly Doubling Down On The Tax And Spend Biden Agenda

“Democrats don’t think their policies are wrong. The message they think was sent is to deliver on their agenda.” (CNN’s Manu Raju, @mkraju, Twitter, 11/03/2021)

“Biden WH wants bad election night to become prod for Hill Democrats on economic agenda ‘hopefully lights a fire under our team on the bill to act,’ senior administration official tells me. ‘clearly voters are frustrated by the pace of action and we need to pick up that pace.’” (CNN’s John Harwood, @JohnJHarwood, 11/03/2021)


“‘The people have spoken,’ [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi says of the Virginia results. Asked if Dems’ loss will change their agenda in Congress, she replies: ‘No, no.’” (Axios’ Andrew Solender, @AndrewSolender, Twitter, 11/03/2021)

“Just caught up with [House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC)] as he entered the Capitol. I asked him what he took away from last night. ‘Well, it just reinforces the fact that we need to get these things done.’ He said the defeat ‘should make it easier’ to pass Biden’s agenda.” (Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman, @JakeSherman, Twitter, 11/03/2021)

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “President Biden’s agenda is … just what the American people want and what they need. And it’s exactly why we need to focus on getting the job done, to finalize and pass this legislation …” (Sen. Schumer, Floor Remarks, 11/03/2021)

SENATE MAJORITY WHIP SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): “There ought to be a clear message to my party and all those who support it to get the job done.” (CNN’s Manu Raju, @mkraju, Twitter, 11/03/2021)

 

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SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

Related Issues: Campaigns & Elections, Economy