Democrats are becoming increasingly nervous about six months out from the midterm elections amid worsening polling numbers for their party as well as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Six months out from the election that will determine which party controls Congress, Democrats are facing an increasingly nightmare scenario that involves the war in Ukraine, high prices for food and gas, immigration problems at the Southern border and the remains covid pandemic,” the Daily Mail reported Thursday.
“It has them worried they will lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate in November,” the report continued.
Democratic strategist Michael Stratton, who has worked on a number of campaigns in blue Colorado, believes what is happening now with the party is a “perfect storm” of bad news.
“Democrats need to you know, wake up here, smell the coffee, and start to get ready,” he said, according to the outlet, which added:
The White House has defended its economic record, touting high job numbers and increased wages, but Democrats worry that message is being lost when Americans are being hit in the pocketbook at the grocery checkout counter and the gas pump.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it was the war in the Ukraine that is making it difficult for the administration to get its economic message out but she defended the job they were doing.
“We understand some realities happening right now, including the fact that there is a war happening in Europe, and that is dominating the airwaves, which we understand and fully expect,” she told DailyMail.com at Wednesday’s press briefing.
“The president has actually done a number of events on the economy in recent days and weeks and will continue to,” she said. “And I don’t know that that’s a shift or requiring a shift; it’s just a recognition that being able to continue to speak to the domestic audience.”
That said, Psaki is on her way out, reportedly for a gig at far-left MSNBC.
A pair of surveys out this week show Biden with dismal job approval: Quinnipiac University’s poll has it at just 33 percent, while his approval in a Reuters/Ipsos poll was only 41 percent.
Meanwhile, American consumers’ increased wages are being gobbled up by 8.5 percent inflation, which is a 41-year high, as food, rent, and gas prices are also rising fast.
White House officials and the president have attempted to blame the hikes on President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — the “Putin Price Spike” — but most Americans aren’t buying that, according to separate surveys.
“No one is going to have to vote on Vladimir Putin anytime soon,” one Democratic strategist told DailyMail.com. “They are losing the blame game right now.”
“Trying to divert attention to unemployment numbers – that is not going to take away the average person’s concern about inflation,” added Chad Campbell, a Democratic strategist in Arizona.
While agreeing that wages are up — they began rising during former President Donald Trump’s term — and job numbers are goo, Campbell said nonetheless: “When you’re paying five and half dollars for a gallon of gas it doesn’t matter what your job is – it’s expensive.”
Another Democratic strategist described the odds of Democrats keeping control of the House in November as “very low.”
“It will be shocking if there was anything but a Republican majority after this November,” the strategist said.