Fear & Loathing in the 2022 Midterm Elections

The Cycle- On Substack

I first learned about Way to Win when they published an analysis after the 2020 cycle empirically demonstrating the weakness of the Democratic Party’s messaging strategy against the GOP’s in the 2020 cycle.

While Republican’s focused on branding Democrats as dangerous socialists intent on destroying America, Democrats were branding Republicans as good friends they just couldn’t wait to work with it!

The poll-tested value of telling swing voters how great the other party is and how much you can’t wait to work with them is pretty high, but the electoral viability of such a strategy is low, very low.

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In 2020, Democrats running on bipartisanship underperformed in “down ballot” elections losing 13 seats in the House and dropping winnable senate races in North Carolina and Maine that would have given Democrat’s the power to reform the filibuster.

So, heading into 2022, I was hyper-focused on getting Democrats to understand that because most Americans don’t follow the news, especially not political news, if you want them to know the Republican Party has collapsed into a dangerous cult that’s coming after their health, wealth, and freedom, you damn well better tell them yourself!

Way to Win is on the frontline of groups working to bring that exact message to the masses and played a key role in helping to push Democrats to run on the Supreme Court’s evisceration of Roe.

In this episode I talk with Jennifer Ancona, co-creator and VP of Way to Win, about Way’s MUST READ analysis of 2022 midterm messaging and how new messaging strategies helped Democrats defeat the Republican Party’s “red wave” against all the odds.

If you want more Democrats to find a Way to Win, donate to support Way’s CRITICAL work right now!

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