A Democrat Party “autopsy” of the 2020 House election acknowledges that Republican attacks on socialism and the “defund the police” craziness were effective in helping the GOP gain seats in the chamber.
From Fox News:
Maloney, in an interview with The Washington Post, which was first to report on the autopsy, acknowledged that the GOP attacks against the “defund the police” movement and tagging Democrats as “socialists” proved to be more effective than Democrats ever anticipated. “The lies and distortions about defund and socialism carried a punch,” he said.
Those attacks helped the GOP gain enough seats to put themselves into a strong position to take back the House in 2022, despite expectations that Democrats were heading for a major victory. Census redistricting is also going to give Republicans a boost.
The Democratic autopsy also blamed polling for failing to meet expectations, noting that polls severely underestimated the strong support for former President Donald Trump:
The study spotlighted that national polling – as it did in the 2016 election – once again underestimated the turnout of Trump voters, which means that the Democrats’ models of who would vote in the 2020 congressional elections were far more left-leaning than the actual electorate last November. The report points to considering new methods to better interpret polls and to get a better measure of those who won’t take part in surveys.
The loss in seats also came despite Democrats spending more on TV advertising, a strategy that did not net the expected results at the ballot box.
The autopsy comes as both parties prepare for a 2022 battle that could see record high turnout for a midterm election, with Democrats clinging to a razor thin House majority and a 50-50 split in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Republicans have expressed optimism about their chances to regain the majority they lost in 2018.
“We have never been stronger in the sense of what the future holds for us — we have never been in a stronger position,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said shortly after the 2020 election. “We won this by adding more people to the party. And we won this in an atmosphere where we were the one group that everyone guaranteed we would lose. And we’re the ones who won.”
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