Who Will Win the Narrative Front of the 2024 Elections?

With the malaise in our country regarding our national politics, those with the best messaging and outreach will trump those who raise the most money or has the greatest name ID.

Changing it up a bit with some double duty…Will be sending out two articles at the same time today:

Today, I was reading a Fox News editorial that was written by a Democrat. All kidding aside, it reminds me of the changes in our politics and what I would say to the DNC if I was somehow given the opportunity to do so.

I remember talking with a prominent party strategist from years back who is semi-retired. He told me many things regarding the success of Democrats in Rural America, but one point in particular stuck out to me. When Democrats ceded the radio airwaves to Republicans, it had a significant impact on their political fortunes. It didn’t help when Republicans and conservatives took to the radio airwaves to feed into the anger of the American people that resulted in the GOP gaining control of Congress for the first time in decades. From there, the dominance of conservative radio lasted through the rise of President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, to the Tea Party waves of 2010 and 2014, and the MAGA movement today.

We’ve seen similar patterns take place. In Rural America, prominent Democratic Party rural strategist Matt Barron has called out the erosion in support for rural outreach and campaigning after the 2010 midterms. Even after Democrats all across the country trounced Republicans in 2006 and 2008(even in states once taken for granted not long ago), rural outreach has never been the same. In that respect, Trump’s 2016 election only “sealed the deal,” completing what had been years in the making. Rural voters, in short, have been written off by my party, to its detriment. Likewise, in the New South, Republicans solidified Southern rural voters, and made substantive gains among non-white voters in the Rio Grande Valley and the Black Belt (not to mention Southern cities such as Miami). The Sun Belt suburbs that have trended in the Democrats’ direction fail to offset these other losses, and render the Democrats’ electoral position shaky at best.

And let’s not forget the erosion of the traditional working class blue-collar Democratic Party base in the Industrial Midwest, who supported Democrats as recently as Barack Obama & Al Gore.

Not to say parties will automatically win by being present. That would be misleading. But not to engage at all is reckless, disadvantageous, and contradictory to Democratic Party values; such as the 50-State Strategy put into use by past DNC Chair Howard Dean. Indeed, competing for every opportunity possible on the map is what made a New Deal/Great Society coalition possible, and what can build a new Build Back Better Unity Coalition for 2024.

What Missouri US Senate Lucas Kunce is trying to do is commendable. In reaching out to Fox News viewers and readers on their turf, and in bypassing the Fox News spin to present the arguments for his campaign, he is helping provide a path forward for Democrats in these areas. Of course, we must not forget the role of Bernie Sanders in pioneering this strategy. And, on a smaller level, we shouldn’t forget similar efforts by Democrats like Indiana Secretary of State candidate Destiny Wells, who went into communities that some Democrats hadn’t even stepped foot in. Nor should we forget Congressman Tim Ryan, who aggressively courted Trump voters in Ohio, visiting the counties Democrats rarely visited, making the rounds on local media stations, and appearing on Fox News TV. Even President Biden has started to speak to these kinds of voters in these ways.

No doubt neglecting the party base can hurt just as much as losing the voters that are needed to win. But what Kunce, Wells, Ryan, and others had or have been doing speaks to the ways that Democrats can meet eye-to-eye with voters outside the base. Via the very basic step of reaching out to them. On their television stations. On the radio. And in local newspapers, magazines, and community events. That was the essence of the DNC 50-State Strategy and the party’s unprecedented Rural America outreach that took place between 2006 and 2008.

Furthermore, when campaigns are not present in communities or even just voters that are up for grabs, that has consequences of its own. It can be lower African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander turnout. Or it can be lower turnout among younger voters and women. What about rural voters that vote for the GOP more than they normally did before because they felt the Republicans cared more about them than Democrats? Of voters in the Industrial Midwest and the South that were left behind and struggling for long periods of time? Of white working class voters who no longer feel the Democratic Party addresses their broader economic concerns? Or even of GOP-leaning non-white voters who have waited for action for a long time and feel broken by the promises of Democrats? Imagine the difference that greater campaign outreach and presence could have had here in 2016 in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Florida (as well as the hotly contested Senate races that year in Missouri and Indiana). That is the power of presence.

Imagine it now for 2024. Imagine if Democrats reached out to such voters touting their accomplishments on veteran affairs, or criticizing the GOP for their hypocrisy as Mr. Kunce did. Or if the party was aggressively courting Rural America with the Build Back Better track record, versus the partisan obstruction and failed decades-long government policies of the Republican Party. Or if the party went on the radio airwaves or even on the early weekday Fox News shows (which have more journalistic credibility and integrity than the late-night fare). Or even just stopping by small towns that few politicians ever took the time to visit. In Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, any of these strategies could make a real difference. Especially when we we have a country as closely divided as now where half of our nation’s regular voters may watch Fox News or listen to whoever Rush Limbaugh’s successor is.

Wouldn’t it make sense to go to these places where a huge portion of the country gets their news and commentary? To call out Vivek Ramaswamy and the party for the ridiculous proposals to suppress young voters and raise the voting age to 25? To call out Donald Trump for committing crimes that other people would be arrested for instantly (such as the Manhattan YouTuber)? To knock the GOP for its hypocrisy on national security issues and its proclaimed respect for “law-and-order?” To condemn the GOP’s extreme positions on abortion and guns, that actually worsen our nation’s mortality issues instead of addressing them? And to promote the longstanding values of the Democratic Party and the Build Back Better agenda, an agenda which has done more for Republican AND Democratic voters in 4 years than decades of Reagan, Bush, and Trump trickle-down economics ever accomplished? It makes a lot of sense to try chipping away at that GOP echo chamber.

What 2024 needs-along with new voices from a new generation-are new campaign approaches and new messages shaped in our true moral convictions, in facts and evidence, and in hope, opportunity, and promise. Because 2024 is the 1860 and 1932 of our times.

P.S Condolences to the entire Garden State in the recent passing of their trailblazing New Jersey Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver.