Maloney said the campaign message crystallized after the pro-Trump siege on January 6, fueled, in part, by false Internet theories. “It was at the heart of the violent attack on Capitol, but it had its roots years ago,” he said.
The new president has the inevitable task of protecting a fragile Democratic majority during a redistricting cycle and a semester, when the president’s party normally loses seats. But he is betting that Democrats can mount a successful offensive using the kind of cultural war attacks that the Republican Party has relentlessly deployed against Democrats in the last cycle – including the flurry of “stripped-down police” ads that have forced moderates to flee the far left of your party.
The GOP waffling on QAnon has been on full display for the past few days, as party leaders have struggled to contain the consequences of Dep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) Extremist rhetoric. McCarthy was silent as Democrats moved to sanction it. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, however, took the highly unusual step of denouncing a member of the House, a move that Democrats say highlights the division of the Republican Party.
“They can do QAnon, or they can do voters with higher education. They you can’t do both, ”said Maloney.
The DCCC’s $ 500,000 TV and digital advertising campaign will run in the districts of seven vulnerable members: Reps. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), Young Kim (R-Calif.), Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R -Pa.) And Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas). The ads use images of protesters breaking into the United States Capitol and accusing Republican members of being “with Q, not you”.
Party strategists are betting that the adoption of the far-fetched conspiracy theory from the right will be politically toxic and undermine their efforts to win back the House in 2022. Democrats are already seeing some encouraging signs: Challengers in Republican-dominated districts are starting to jump on the sidelines , citing the attack last month as motivation to run.
“Republicans have done a horrible thing in motivating really first-rate quality candidates to raise their hands,” said Tim Persico, the executive director of the DCCC. “The January 6 events, and the subsequent pampering of QAnon and the refusal to take any responsibility – I think it had a profound impact on people’s interest in running.”
Democratic recruiters said they heard an increase in interest from potential candidates for Fitzpatrick, Garcia, Bacon and Reps. Lee Zeldin (RN.Y.), John Katko (RN.Y.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) Since the Capitol attack. Some others have already formally declared their moves, part of what Maloney described as a “game changer” for recruitment.
One of those newly launched Democratic candidates is Jay Chen, a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, who lost his bid for a spot in Orange County in 2012. He thought he might return to politics one day, but after watching the events Jan 6 and Kim’s decision not to accuse then President Donald Trump, he quickly launched a campaign against her – an unusual move in early January, right after an election.
Chen was a naval intelligence officer stationed in Kuwait when a Shiite militia raided the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in December 2019, attacks he monitored in real time. He said he experienced déjà vu when he saw domestic terrorists invading the headquarters of the US government.
“If this had been orchestrated by any other country, this attack on the Capitol would have been considered an act of war,” said Chen, arguing that the United States would have retaliated. “But as they were supporters of Trump, because that was incited by the president, then, suddenly, patriotism is thrown out the window. Responsibility is thrown out the window. And consideration # 1 is party politics and does not offend Trump’s base. And this is wrong. “
A focus on riots and QAnon marks a shift in messages from Democrats in the last elections, which have focused more directly on health and the economy – even as Republicans made attacks claiming that Democrats wanted to cut police budgets or ban health insurance. private health care. Many Democrats attributed at least part of their unexpected losses last year to the Republican Party’s attacks.
Maloney argues that there is a big difference between the Republican Party’s attacks in 2020, which exaggerated the Democrats ‘position on policing reform and other issues, and the Democrats’ attacks on QAnon.
“The characterization of our party in the last election was a lie and an effort to demagogate,” said Maloney. “I’m talking about a clear description of the power that Marjorie Taylor Greene and others now have in that caucus.”
Democrats want Republicans to spend the end of the year answering for curious members like Greene and Boebert, as well as for 139 House members who voted to block certification of election results just hours after a violent crowd took over the Capitol.
They see an opening against many of these members – including Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), Who witnesses said had almost sparked a fistfight on the floor the night of the January 6 attack.
The current Harris district in eastern Maryland is predominantly Republican. But Democrats in Annapolis could draw a new congressional map that would make their district more competitive and potential challengers. are ready to enjoy. Heather Mizeur, a 2014 Democratic candidate for governor and former state legislator and legislator, said she did not consider a return to politics until January 6, after which she decided to challenge Harris: “It was like waking up a hibernating bear. It is as if my mother more ferocious bear had left. “
Mizeur said that what Harris did after the turmoil – including violating House rules by trying to drop a gun, a few days after the siege – “forced me into the race. It could not remain unchallenged. “
Meanwhile, Republican Party campaign officials rejected the Democratic line of attack, arguing that many Americans are not familiar with the complexities of QAnon – whose followers believe Trump was secretly fighting a conspiracy of Satan-worshiping child sex traffickers who worked in the “state” of your administration.
The real threats from QAnon, Republicans say, are not as apparent to the average voter, unlike Democratic policy proposals like policing or health care reforms.
And they point out that all but 17 Republicans voted to condemn QAnon in a plenary vote last fall. The three freshman Republican members targeted in the ad campaign voted against.
“We will continue to hammer the House Democrats for their socialist agenda of job annihilation and leave marginal conspiracies for the DCCC,” said Michael McAdams, spokesman for the NRCC. “If anyone wants to know which strategy is most effective, just look at the results of the House of the last cycle,” he said, noting that Republicans won 28 of the 29 races that handicappers ranked the most competitive until election day.
But DCCC officials say they studied polls in marginal groups like QAnon and found that the issue is registered with the majority of voters: a poll conducted on behalf of the DCCC by two Democratic researchers found that 68 percent of voters polled in districts of battlefield were familiar with QAnon – and it had an unfavorable 63 percent rating.
“The American people know QAnon well and know it is dangerous,” said Maloney.
Democrats, in general, say they expect Republicans to face their ties to conspiracy theorists over the next two years, with Greene’s profile growing only in his first month in Congress as a treasure trove of offensive comments that she did reappears. And that could be crucial to getting Democratic voters halfway through their term, just two years after their House candidates lost seats despite President Joe Biden’s victory.
“Happy and healthy voters don’t show up to vote for the evidence. It’s the irritated and the irritated, ”said Ian Russell, a Democratic strategist who works with several House Democrats in danger. “Who do you really want in charge? Do you want Joe Biden and the Democrats or this crazy cast? It is not just QAnon. It’s the complete package. The Republicans threw us an intermediate lifeline that we might not have otherwise ”.