“We realized that we had a winning strategy and that abortion was still very important issue to voters,” said Heather Williams, the DLCC’s interim president.
Still, one issue legislative candidates didn’t have to litigate in 2022 and 2023 was President Joe Biden’s deep unpopularity. Next year, though, he’ll be on the ballot with hundreds of legislative candidates across the country.
The latest NBC News national poll found Biden’s approval rating at 40% — the lowest level of his presidency.
Williams said that even though Biden wasn’t on the ballot in the last two years, he was still on voters’ minds.
“Sure, he wasn’t on the ticket, but there is no escaping — right? — like, the Democratic Party from Biden — like, he’s the leader of the party,” Williams said.
But, she added, state legislators’ involvement in the community helps voters form opinions about candidates that are distinct from their opinions about Biden.
“I will say something that we are seeing is that our level of the ballot — state legislators, right? — they are really still in these communities. They live there,” Williams said.
Both sides plan to take advantage of early voting
Despite Republican losses in the Virginia House and Senate this month, the DLCC’s opposite, the Republican State Legislative Committee, touted a new early and absentee voting strategy as something that will help it in legislative races around the country next year.
“I think Republicans have a blueprint for success heading into the 2024 cycle. One of our larger goals as we head into the 2024 cycle is really tackling the [absentee and early voting] gap and starting to chip away at the Democrats’ advantage on this front,” Max Docksey, the RSLC’s political director, told reporters this month.
Docksey added that after the 2022 midterm elections, “Democrats were highly effective at turning out low-propensity voters in battleground states across the country, including states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. By investing in low-propensity voters, the Democrats were not only increasing their [absentee and early vote] advantage, but they were actually expanding their base of voters overall.”
“This showed us that [absentee and early voting] needs to be treated as an additional campaign operation, not just a small component of the larger campaign plan,” Docksey said.
He also said the RSLC plans to continue encouraging absentee and early voting options in next year’s legislative races.
“We truly believe that as Republicans look ahead to the 2024 cycle, this is the absentee and early vote model that needs to be adopted across the country,” he said.
While Democrats retained an advantage among early and absentee voters in Virginia this year, they took notice of the GOP’s efforts.
Williams said: “As you move to 2024, the Republican voter is willing to accept and trust early, early in-person voting options, whether that’s satellite locations or extended hours or what have you. But … the trust of mail-in ballots is still questionable for the average Republican voter. So I think … that’s one of the things certainly that we’re, like, looking at.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
