One seasoned pollster is sounding the alarm that Democratic messaging, particularly from President Joe Biden, could be severely hampering the party ahead of the midterm elections, according to a Politico report.
Stan Greenberg, who was a pollster for President Bill Clinton and is married to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told the media outlet that Biden’s attempts to highlight his in-office accomplishments as a way to rally the base has the opposite effect on voters.
“It’s our worst performing message,” he told Politico’s West Wing Playbook, which focuses on the ins and outs of the White House.
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Greenberg said he has been alerting the Democratic Party that its long-held belief that voters need to hear more about its accomplishments is inaccurate.
“I’ve tested it,” he added, noting that Democrats appeared to lose polling leads following speeches by Biden in which he listed off accomplishments rather than policy objectives.
“I’m stunned about how much of the Democratic commentary is winging it,” Greenberg told Playbook. “[Republicans are] hitting us on crime and border and inflation.”
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“That has huge power,” he continued. “And we have the self-satisfied message of how much we’ve accomplished rather than being focused on what is happening to people.”
Greenberg said that it’s not a matter of ignoring Democratic accomplishments, but he said the party and Biden need to tout what they have achieved by showing how their policies help people in their daily lives and not as a way to boast about in-office records.
The pollster, who has been evaluating non-effective midterm messaging for Democrats since 1994 when Republicans swept the upper and lower chambers in Congress for the first time since 1952, said Biden has made some messaging changes but argued it’s not good enough.
“I saw their visuals when they were campaigning with the West in which they were talking about helping families with high costs,” he told Politico. “They’ve made a turn with addressing it, but they’re also combining it with a message of how great a job they’re doing.”
