For an upcoming look at campaigns. The issue of law and order has always been beneficial for Republican candidates.
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As protests against racism and police brutality continue to rock the country, President Donald Trump made preserving “law and order” central to his reelection campaign at this week’s Republican convention, arguing that a Joe Biden presidency will result in socialism and anarchy.
“The most dangerous aspect of the Biden platform is the attack on public safety,” Trump said as he accepted the GOP nomination for president at the White House Thursday night.
“No one will be safe in Biden’s America,” Trump later added.
That message has slowly started to pop up in House and Senate races, as Republicans look to hold onto their Senate majority and flip the House by winning districts Trump carried four years ago.
“Today, Washington is failing us: socialists trying to abolish the police, radicals trying to tear down our country And career politicians, they just point fingers and play games,” Iowa GOP state Rep. Ashley Hinson said in her latest TV ad launched Thursday.
. . . The “law and order” message appeared aimed at rallying the GOP base but also appealing to suburban voters, where Republicans lost House seats during the 2018 midterms. Democrats won control of the House two years ago by focusing on health care, and they’re continuing to do so this year as the country is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s not clear if stoking fear about impending violence will resonate with independent voters or GOP women who backed Democrats in 2018, since these voters also tend to be turned off by Trump’s rhetoric. But some Republicans believe it could, since unrest in cities hits close to home.
Even so, Republican ads so far have largely focused on other issues.
Aside from the ad attacking Rose on police, the other four ads the Congressional Leadership Fund released Wednesday underscored a message Republicans are planning to deploy in House races across the country: that freshman House Democrats aren't the bipartisan moderates they promised to be in 2018.
