Vulnerable Senate Dems Spitting on Voters’ Heads and Telling Them It’s Raining
Washington, D.C. – Vulnerable Senate Democrats are keeping their distance from their deeply unpopular leader Joe Biden – in public. They continue to dodge when asked if they want him to hit the campaign trail in their states. Given their voting records, it’s surprising that vulnerable Democrats are giving Biden the cold shoulder.
Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, Mark Kelly, Michael Bennet, Patty Murray, and Raphael Warnock vote for Joe Biden’s radical agenda over 92% of the time collectively. Senate hopefuls Tim Ryan and Val Demings both vote for Biden’s agenda 100% of the time. So why don’t they want to be seen with Joe Biden? Because they think voters are stupid.
They think they can fool voters into thinking that they will stand up to Biden’s radical agenda. But voters aren’t dumb. They know that any of these Senators could have blocked Biden’s spending spree that’s crushing middle-class families. Vulnerable Senate Democrats are spitting on voters’ heads and telling them it’s raining.
Read more from Punchbowl News:
Vulnerable Senate Dems maintaining their distance from White House
For months, we’ve been tracking whether vulnerable Democrats want President Joe Biden to campaign with them ahead of the midterms. When we asked endangered Senate Democrats in June if they wanted Biden to appear in their battleground states, they largely refused to engage.
After a summer of big legislative wins for the White House — including the sweeping $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act and the PACT Act — we wondered if they’d warmed to a presidential campaign visit.
The short answer: Not really.
The most at-risk Senate Democrats still wouldn’t directly answer whether they wanted Biden to campaign with them.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) told us in June he was focused on delivering for Georgians, not how the White House could support his reelection bid. Last week, Warnock told us the Biden campaign question was “something for the pundits to focus on.”
And here’s Warnock’s response when we asked if he was touting the IRA in the Peach State:
“I’m glad we got [the IRA] over the finish line. And today I entered the Taxing Big Oil Profiteers Act, which will hold the oil and gas companies accountable for the price gouging we’re seeing in the midst of a pandemic.”
When we asked Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) about a Biden visit, the former Navy pilot and astronaut deflected by saying he would “welcome anybody to come to Arizona.”
Kelly did hail the CHIPS Act and the prescription drug pricing reform in the IRA.
“I’m not a political analysis person, but I would say I’ve met a lot of seniors that can’t afford their prescription drugs.
“This addresses that problem in a big way. So just from a standpoint of our senior population being healthy and being able to afford the medication they need, it’s a very positive thing.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) was the endangered incumbent most open to Biden’s involvement. “The president of the United States is always welcome in New Hampshire,” Hassan told us.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) replied in a similar manner to NBC before quickly asserting where her “focus” is: “The POTUS is always welcome in my state, but my focus right now is on Nevada, first and foremost.”
Cortez Masto is also praising the IRA on the trail, arguing the package will “create jobs” and “lower costs for Nevadans.”
→ To give a sense of how other Democrats are treating Biden, Ohio Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan recently wouldn’t even say if he wanted Biden to run again. Notably, Ryan delivered that vote of confidence when appearing alongside Biden at an unveiling of a new Intel factory in Ohio.
— Max Cohen, Heather Caygle, Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan
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