Jonathan Weisman and Neil Vigdor
Tue, October 25, 2022 at 6:50 AM
Democratic candidates, facing what increasingly looks like a reckoning in two weeks, are struggling to find a closing message on the economy that acknowledges the deep uncertainty troubling the electorate while making the case that they, not the Republicans, hold the solutions.
For some time, the party’s candidates and strategists have debated whether to hit inflation head on or to heed warnings that any shift toward an economic message would be ending the campaign on the strongest possible Republican ground. Since midsummer, when the Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade, Democrats had hoped that preserving the 50-year-old constitutional right to an abortion and castigating Republican extremism could get them past the worst inflation in 40 years.
That is looking increasingly like wishful thinking.
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On Monday, Democrats unveiled new messages that appeared to switch tacks, incorporating achievements of the past two years with expressions of sympathy on the economy and dire warnings for what Republicans might bring.
Switching messaging with two weeks lift is far too late to change any minds. Instead of obsessing over abortion and 01/06 they should have been using this messaging like four months ago. Oh well they went all in on abortion and it going to be a big mistake for them.