Democrats had popular policies to run on in 2022 — unlike 2010: analysis
On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's "All In," anchor Chris Hayes laid out a key reason why the 2022 midterm election did not pan out as a substantial Republican victory the way the 2010 midterm did under President Barack Obama: Democrats had a far more popular agenda on which to run.
"The Biden agenda, domestic agenda of the Democratic Party, was pretty popular," said Hayes. "Under Joe Biden, unified party control, the Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which among many other provisions, lowers prescription drug costs, invests in clean energy. They passed the American Rescue Plan. It gave people checks, extended all kinds of relief for cities to hire more teachers and things like that. They passed the CHIPS Act, which invests in domestic manufacturing. The president, through executive action, relieved people of their student loan debt. $10,000, as much as $20,000 for others. There was a historic bipartisan infrastructure bill. The president also put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, which was confirmed by a Democratic Senate."
"All those things I listed polled above water," added Hayes. "Majority approval for all of them. Even controversial ones, like the student loan forgiveness. I think that's the biggest difference between today and the last actual giant red wave in 2010."
In that election, Hayes noted, Democrats passed the landmark Affordable Care Act, which today is solidly popular as the largest expansion of public health care coverage since the creation of Medicare, but at the time terrified people who thought they were going to lose coverage, and Republicans exploited it.
"You've got Democrats pushing this legislation, passing it," said Hayes. "That legislation being unpopular in polling. Republicans run against it." They told outrageous lies, Hayes added, like that it would cut Medicare and that there would be "death panels coming to euthanize Grandma ... All that lying worked. Democrats passed this legislation. tThey lied about a lot of its details. Then they ran against it. Democrats lost 63 seats in the House. Six in the Senate. Even then-President Barack Obama had to concede his party got walloped." He played a clip of Obama admitting his party took a "shellacking."
"President Biden did not take a shellacking like that. In fact, some of us think maybe he learned a lesson," said Hayes. "The Joe Biden Democratic Party domestic policy agenda ... polled much higher. It showed up in those contested races. It showed up in incumbents like Abigail Spanberger, who won the races in tight quarters, who didn't have to run away from the vote. They could run on voting for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. They could [run] on the American Rescue Plan. The CHIPS Act. He gave Democratic incumbents, particularly defending amongst challengers, a strong message to run on. That includes Mark Kelly, Raphael Warnock, Catherine Cortez Masto. It gave Democrats a strong message."
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