Latest news with #battlegroundstates
Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
LIZ PEEK: Democrats' identity crisis shows no sign of getting better. It's actually getting worse
The Democratic Party has no leader and no message. That's not a right-wing talking point; that's the findings of a poll commissioned by a Democrat SuperPAC. As reported by The Hill, a survey conducted between May and June by Unite the Country showed voters perceive the Democratic Party as "out of touch," "woke" and "weak." Worse, perceptions and confidence in the party have actually soured since last year's election, when Democrats not only lost the presidency, but also the Senate and the House. Democrat support from White men, Hispanic men and working-class voters in general has collapsed to below 35%. The poll is especially worrisome for Democrats in that it surveyed voters across 21 swing counties in 10 battleground states – the regions which will determine the outcomes of future elections. What can Democrats do to turn their prospects around? For starters, according to the survey, find new leaders who will talk about issues that matter to people, and particularly economic issues. Also, get back to common sense, which the party has rejected. Can anyone be surprised by these findings? After all, Democrats with unerring aim find themselves on the wrong side of almost every issue. Biological boys competing in girls' sports? Check. Open borders? Check. Opposing school choice? Check. Most recently, Democrats rallied in support of Glass House marijuana farms in California which were raided by ICE, even though the facility employed hundreds of people in the country illegally, including at least 10 children. Among the 361 illegals caught were criminals reportedly convicted for rape, kidnapping, burglary, hit and run, and DUI. Also detained were more than a dozen children, including one who is 14 years old, raising concerns about child trafficking. As ICE agents descended on the farm, they came under vicious assault from immigration activists and protesters. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was laying the groundwork in South Carolina for a presidential run when the riots broke out at the pot facility, posted this on X: "Instead of supporting the businesses and workers that drive our economy and way of life, Stephen Miller's tactics evoke chaos, fear and terror within our communities at every turn," speaking of the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and United States homeland security adviser. Californians were likely surprised to hear their "way of life" depended on illegal underage labor. Washington state's Democratic Rep. Pramilla Jayapal has accused ICE officers of acting "like a terrorist force" while Gov. Tim Walz smeared ICE agents as the "modern-day Gestapo." Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson describes ICE agents as "secret police" and says they're "terrorizing our communities." Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, New York Congressmen Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman and many others have condemned ICE workers. The upshot of this reckless vitriol is that ICE agents have suffered a 700% increase in violent assaults even as they work to protect our communities. Democrats should note that in last year's election, voters turned out to elect Donald Trump, who vowed not only to secure our border but also to deport people in this country illegally. Reflexively opposing Trump in this ambition is also to oppose the will of American citizens. Last month, a CBS News/YouGov poll showed a majority of the country supports President Trump's deportation program, and a plurality thinks the effort is making the country safer. Other polls have indicated overwhelming support for deporting criminals. It isn't just President Trump's immigration policies that Democrats oppose; it's every move he makes. That brings them, for instance, to vote for a $4 trillion tax hike, which would have clobbered our economy. Even billionaire Democrat Mark Cuban is appalled by his party, noting on a recent podcast that Democrats' only plan of action is to complain about the president. "That's the underlying thought of everything the Democrats dot," Cuban said, "Trump sucks." As he said, "That's not the way to win. It's just not." While the current disarray in the Democratic Party is heartening for Republicans, it carries risks not only for the GOP but, more importantly, for the country. Searching for new leadership and new ideas could well encourage the rise of the likes of Zohran Mamdani the Democratic Socialist now leading the mayoral race in New York. Mamdani has burst on the scene promising to deliver free bus rides, free childcare, cheaper food via government-run grocery stores and cheaper housing via rent caps. None of it is real, but for hard-up voters searching for candidates who offer new ideas, the pitch resonates. Shamefully, leading Democratic Representatives like Jerry Nadler and Adriano Espaillat have endorsed this fraud who pretends to have working-class roots and to despise billionaires, even as his campaign is funded by the very rich and he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Mamdani is a big champion of public schools but attended pricey private schools and an expensive liberal arts college. Worse, Mamdani, who is Muslim, is openly anti-Israel and widely viewed as antisemitic. How can a candidate who has called to "globalize the intifada" lead a city that is home to 1.3 million Jews – the largest Jewish population outside Israel? Is anyone paying attention? Establishment Democrats are scared to death of Mamdani and his fanatical Democratic Socialist supporters, who have threatened to primary any who stand in their way. Millions of dollars are flowing from billionaire George Soros' son Alex to promote this candidate who rails against the wealthy and to challenge his opponents. This is a test for today's Democrats. If they follow Mamdani down his Socialist (President Trump and others say Communist) path and allow the 33-year-old snake-oil salesman to become the face of the next generation, they will further shrink their popularity. Most Americans, outside the coastal elites responsible for so much misfortune for Democrats, disagree with Mamdani's leftist policies and will increasingly disengage from a party that celebrates him. If not, we are all in trouble.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Young Men Who Elected Trump Just Realized They Screwed Up
The young men who helped get Donald Trump back into the White House are now realizing they made a massive mistake, according to a Harvard polling expert. John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, told Joanna Coles on Tuesday's episode of the Daily Beast Podcast that 'they are turning against him,' referring specifically to young men aged between 18 and 29 years old. 'More younger people are concerned that Donald Trump is doing more harm to them than good. OK. That's essentially what the report card looks like,' he told the Beast's chief content officer. During the 2024 election, Trump won narrow margins in key battleground states after making an outreach to disaffected young men, using right-wing influencers and anti-woke rhetoric to secure their votes. 'I believe younger people were responsible for putting Donald Trump in office to start with, specifically younger men,' Della Volpe said. However, he also suggested that these voters feel they have seen no return on the campaign promises made by Trump regarding the economy and other domestic concerns. 'Younger people are quickly asking important questions like, 'I thought this was going to improve my economic standing. What about me?'' said Della Volpe, who advised Joe Biden during his 2020 election campaign and worked with a PAC that tried to rally support for Kamala Harris in 2024. The economy has gyrated wildly under Trump, and his 'Liberation Day' tariffs in April has seen the cost of imports to the U.S. surge, with the price being kicked down to the consumer. Coles said that she was 'amazed' that this group didn't draw conclusions from Trump's first term, from 2017 2021. Della Volpe said that the 18-24-year-old subsection of the young voter group only saw Trump as president during the beginning of the pandemic and, therefore, couldn't make a fully informed call on his abilities—or lack of. 'People in their later twenties and early thirties who do have that memory of Trump 1 were more likely to support Democrats, right? So what they're concerned about is honestly the same thing all of us are concerned about,' Della Volpe added. 'It is asking for, demanding, some stability in their lives, specifically related to economics and finances. It's really all about that. But I do think that younger people, just, you know, they have a different lens.' Younger men specifically were drawn to Trump's macho persona, Della Volpe later added. 'They were looking for Donald Trump as someone who wasn't defending the institutions, but someone who could use his strength to advocate for people who were economically anxious,' he explained. 'It was really about the strength of his persona, I think, different than some specific policies. That was what was attractive specifically around younger men.' But after six turbulent months in the hot seat, young people are 'clearly overwhelmingly dissatisfied,' the pollster added. 'His approval ratings among younger people are in the 30s,' he said. A report from Della Volpe's team in late April found that more than four in 10 young Americans under 30 say they're 'barely getting by' financially. Fewer than one-third approved of President Trump. Trump's popularity during the 2024 election campaign surged among young Latino men. Harvard's polling found that 52 percent of young Hispanics are still 'struggling to make ends meet or get by with limited financial security,' significantly higher than their white (38 percent) or Black (45 percent) peers.
The Guardian
05-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Democrats need to embrace economic populism to win back young voters, says advocacy group leader
Young people in the US are looking for Democrats to embrace economic populism and authentic candidates willing to fight for them, says the new leader of a group dedicated to youth voter mobilisation. Victoria Yang is the interim president and executive director of NextGen America, an organisation that engages young people through voter education and registration. She succeeds Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, who held the post for four years. In an interview with the Guardian, Yang criticised Democrats for failing to grapple with daily cost-of-living concerns and urged the party to learn from Senator Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (AOC) focus on pocketbook issues. NextGen recently commissioned Tulchin Research to conduct six online focus groups with swing voters aged 18 to 26 in battleground states. The focus groups found the young voters were anxious about their financial future and the rising cost of housing, food and education. Many felt the system was rigged, with billionaires riding high and working people short of opportunities. These concerns ranked far higher than the war in Gaza or so-called 'woke' topics such as gender pronouns. Speaking by phone from Boston, Yang said: 'Right now what they're feeling is the everyday things that are affecting them: the cost of groceries, gas prices, paying for rent. That is the number one issue; we need to be focused on that. 'There's so many other issues as well but that's what our priority is: connecting with them on these issues and how, if they get involved and make their voices heard by voting, by volunteering, by signing petitions and fighting back, they're going to make the change that they want to see.' The focus groups praised progressives Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez for their willingness to fight and directly address economic concerns. But last year's Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, who moderated some of her policy positions during the campaign, was seen by many as inauthentic. 'What our focus group showed was that economic populism is still resonating with young people and their messaging was not. If you go to the grocery store and you're now paying $6 or $7 for a gallon of milk and you were paying $4, you're now having to stretch your dollars further, and those little incremental increases all add up. The house that you're trying to save for, or trying to pay for college, has a domino effect. 'The Democrats were not leaning into that. We need to be leaning into making sure that young people understand: we hear you, we see you, this is what we're trying to do and then laying out a plan for that.' Yang knows what she is fighting for. She was a small child when her family fled political persecution in Laos, spent time in a refugee camp in Thailand, then, 45 years ago, settled in southern California. 'I am living proof of the American dream and all the things that it holds. My mom, a single parent, put us through college and worked hard. I remember the struggles of having to figure out how to put food on the table. She did it as a waitress in a small Chinese restaurant.' She also knows her way around the Democratic party, having worked with the Obama Foundation's Girls Opportunity Alliance, Democratic National Committee and former senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer. She takes over at NextGen at a moment when the party is embroiled in an identity crisis amid fears that young voters have veered to the right. Yang says NextGen's work shows the value of consistent engagement. In eight key states last year, 67% of the young voters that NextGen registered and communicated with regularly went on to cast a ballot, compared with 54% youth turnout nationally. The lesson for Democrats is that it is not enough to show up late and take young voters for granted. Yang continued: 'You can't expect that you're going to knock on young people's doors the last two or three months of the election and then say, you should vote for candidate A and B, when the whole time you've never spoken to them or engaged them. 'The message that we want to make sure people understand and the party understands is that you have to invest in young people. They're at the very beginning of their voting journey and they haven't developed the voting muscle yet. They have to be educated.' The focus groups found that TikTok was the dominant platform for this generation, and Instagram and YouTube are also very popular. Most participants do not seek out news but look to creators who are funny, authentic and able to make complicated subjects easier to understand. Yang commented: 'We have to make sure that we can help them understand what is at stake and talk to them authentically through the platforms and the way they want to be engaged. That's what this is all about.' Democrats failed in this objective, Yang argues, by arriving late and over-relying on traditional media. NextGen is exploring new methods, such as an artificial intelligence chatbot on community platforms such as Discord, and an explicitly non-partisan approach to encouraging voter registration. Much has been written about how Donald Trump outplayed Democrats by exploiting the 'manosphere', appealing to young men through rightwing influencers and podcasters. But Yang believes that economic imperatives eclipse gender, race or other variables. 'Inflation, tariffs, the cost of living – that resonates whether you're a man or woman, Black, brown, yellow or red. That's what will connect with young people. They might not identify with the Democratic party but the issues that are important to them resonate across all genders and all sectors.' Young voters favored Harris over Trump in the 2024 election by four percentage points, a much smaller margin than the 25-point advantage young voters gave Joe Biden over Trump in 2020, according to AP VoteCast data. Opinion polls suggest that the shift was especially pronounced among young men. Participants in NextGen's focus groups felt that Democratic party has lost touch with people it claims to represent. They described Democrats as weak, too willing to roll over and disconnected from everyday concerns. Some described Democrats as a 'mom', caring but overprotective, while Republicans were seen as a 'dad', assertive and focused on discipline and control. Only 36% of Americans view Democrats favourably, according to a new Economist/ YouGov poll, but Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez's Fighting Oligarchy Tour has been rallying big and enthusiastic crowds. Yang remains optimistic and hopeful for the future. 'Senator Sanders and AOC are talking on the issues. It's less about the party. It's less about even candidates or anything like that. It's an economic populist message and that is what they're leading with. The party is probably seeing that and getting the message but we still have to continue to engage and work on it.' Young people are persuadable, she added. 'Just because they voted maybe for Trump in this election doesn't mean that we don't have an opportunity to get them in the midterm, in the next presidential, if we meet them where they are, if we engage them all year round now until then. That's the key message.' Yang's commitment to economic justice, a social safety net and giving young people a fair shot was shaped by her own experience. As an immigrant, she benefited from government programmes such as welfare assistance, free school lunches and a Pell Grant, which provides federal aid for college students with exceptional financial needs. 'That helped to define me and brought me to this work. The country as a democracy has provided all these opportunities. I want to make sure that these policies continue so when folks need it they have a safety net but also be able to create a life. It was transformative in so many ways and now I get to sit here and have a conversation with you.'
Fox News
27-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Dems drop $20M on bizarre 'American men' strategy plan study in effort to dig out of 2024 political hole
Democrats are spending $20 million on a study examining how to speak to "American men" after losing ground with the demographic during the 2024 election cycle, The New York Times revealed. "Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan" is a $20 million project crafted by Democrats to "study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces" of male voters, the Times reported Sunday. Known as "SAM," the study will specifically examine young male voters and how the party can connect with the demographic. Additionally, the study advised rolling out pro-Democrat ads in video games. The study's revelation was made in an overarching article detailing the uphill battle Democrats face after the 2024 election, which included Democrats scrambling to replace former President Joe Biden as the nominee with just more than 100 days left in the election cycle and ultimately delivering all seven battleground states to President Donald Trump. "The Democratic Party's tarnished image could not come at a more inopportune moment," the article detailed. "In this era of political polarization, the national party's brand is more important and influential than ever, often driving the outcomes of even the most local of races." In response, Democrat operatives and donors have gathered at swank hotels to craft plans on how to draw back the working class and male voters, the Times reported. Trump made big in-roads with the male vote during the 2024 election cycle. A Fox News Voter Survey published in November 2024 found that men aged 18–44 supported Trump at 53%, compared to former Vice President Kamala Harris' 45%. While The Associated Press found that more than half of male voters under the age of 30 voted for Trump instead of Harris — including roughly six-in-10 White male voters supporting Trump — about one-third of Black male voters supported Trump, as did about 50% of young Latino male voters. Trump's support among young Black and Latino male voters jumped by about 20% compared to his 2020 support, the AP reported. Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he does not take issue with Democrats investing in voter engagement strategies but added that he found it "hilarious" that "people in suits are hanging out at luxury hotels asking how they can talk to day-to-day Americans." "We're having an issue with the messenger more than the message," Ceraso said, arguing that voters support longstanding Democratic policies such as affordable housing, but that "Democrats just need to take a reality check" on how they convey their messaging to voters. "I just don't understand how, after all these years and all these Democrats who've been in the game, how we continue to make those same choices," he added. "Like Rahm Emmanuel, or all these sort of big names, they're just like, 'Yeah, we're going to figure out how to win in, you know, rural North Carolina by hanging out in a New York hotel.' That makes no sense to me. And strategically, I don't care how much money you spend on focus groups, if you're doing that, you're just negating any type of investment you're putting into how to have a conversation with voters." Democrats spending millions studying American male "syntax" sparked condemnation from conservatives and Democrats alike on social media, Fox News Digital found. "Democratic donors treating men like an endangered species on a remote island they need to study probably won't rebuild trust," MSNBC contributor Rotimi Adeoy posted to X in response to the Times' report. "This kind of top-down, anthropological approach misses the point: people don't want to be decoded, they want to be understood and met where they are." "The idea that you can "fix" the male voter problem that exists with Black, Latino, and white men by spending $20 million to study their syntax like they're a foreign culture is exactly why there's a disconnect," Adeoy continued. "These voters aren't a research subject. They're citizens." Chief political analyst at the Liberal Patriot, Michael Baharaeen, posted to X, "This really says it all," in response to a tweet quoting the article regarding how "Democratic donors and strategists have been gathering at luxury hotels to discuss how to win back working-class voters, commissioning new projects that can read like anthropological studies of people from faraway places." "The fact that Democrats need to drop $20 million just to figure out how to speak to American men tells you everything you need to know. This is the same move they pull on black people. They don't care about you they only care about your vote!" conservative podcaster DeVory Darkins posted to X. "Democratic donors are planning to spend $20 million to figure out how to talk to dudes," polster Frank Luntz posted to X. A handful of critics reposted a video from the 2024 campaign cycle that featured men declaring they were "man enough" to support Harris for president. The grassroots ad went viral in October 2024 as social media commenters panned it as "the cringiest political ad ever created" and pointed out it was created by a former producer for Jimmy Kimmel and featured actors vowing support for Harris. The video featured six self-described manly men who claimed they were so masculine that they ate "carburetors for breakfast" and were not "afraid of bears," while adding they also do not fear women and would support Harris for the Oval Office. "Remember the month before the election and Democrats tried to relate to men?. Now they're trying again spending $20 million," one social media commenter posted this week, accompanied by the October 2024 video.
