Joe Biden’s poll numbers have fallen so far, so fast that GOP operatives at the state level haven’t had time to react. But now, as it appears the president’s agenda is about to crash and burn, and his disastrous immigration policies are turning the southern border into a humanitarian mess, those same operatives are seeing an opening against prominent Democrats who are on record supporting Biden.
One of the GOP’s biggest targets is Democratic lawmakers in Virginia. The state went all-blue in 2020 and, with a Democratic governor, proceeded to pass some of the strictest gun control measures in the country. Republicans are looking to win back the state and believe that Joe Biden will be a big help in doing so. They’re running a series of ads targeting a prominent Democrat by tying him to the faltering president.
Fox News:
The commercial, by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), uses a recording of Virginia state lawmaker Alex Askew saying that he and other Democrats in the commonwealth can “run on the record that President Biden and our folks and partners in Washington, D.C., are doing.”
The spot targeting Askew is part of a six-figure ad buy launched last month by the RSLC in the Virginia contests, which are being seen by many pundits as a bellwether ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
.@AlexAskew757 said it himself — he and his fellow liberal delegates in Richmond are running on the failed and radical record of Democrat-controlled Washington.
Watch our new ad 📺 below pic.twitter.com/NB4vMW83Yc
— Republican State Leadership Committee (@RSLC) September 21, 2021
Virginia is fertile ground for this type of attack. Geographically, most of the state is Republican. The Washington, D.C., suburbs in Northern Virginia, and some counties around Norfolk and Charlottesville, are Democratic but most of the rest of the state is deep red. Flipping the state is more than possible if GOP voters can be motivated to get out and vote.
“This is the most directly we’ve linked a Virginia House Democrat to President Biden so far this cycle. Given the president is under water in this district and in other targets of ours, stay tuned for more of us holding Virginia Democrats accountable for standing by the failures of Biden and his radical liberal allies in Washington,” an official with the RSLC told Fox News.
And it’s not just the RSLC.
Michael McAdams, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the reelection arm of the House GOP, told Fox News that “Joe Biden’s failed policies will be weaponized in races around the country and serve as an anchor around the neck of every vulnerable House Democrat.”
It used to be very difficult to nationalize a midterm election. But then came the 2010 election and Obamacare. Republicans buried Democrats by tying every last one of them to the unpopular law.
Now, Democrats will have the millstone of Joe Biden’s massive spending and tax-raising policies to to wear around their necks. Generally speaking in politics, if you’re on the defensive, you’ve already lost.
The only question for Democrats is how bad their losses will be.
