Something uncanny has been happening in contentious battleground states over the past few weeks. As polls have tightened between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, multiple Democrat senators vying for reelection have come out in sudden praise of various aspects of Trump’s economic and immigration policies.
Mainstream pollsters are in agreement on one thing – polls are tightening as the “excitement” over Kamala Harris replacing Biden at the top of the ticket has faded. In the latest YouGov poll Harris is leading Trump by a single point across seven battleground states: 50 percent to 49 percent.
Other polls show Trump leading in four of the battleground states, with a new Telegraph poll showing Trump ahead in Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina, while he is neck and neck with Harris in Michigan and Pennsylvania, both states Biden won narrowly last time.
Let’s not forget that there is massive evidence that polls will continue to underestimate Trump’s support, especially in battleground states. In fact, if polls are off as much as they were in 2020 Trump could easily win all the battleground states and the national vote.
The very conceivable reality of a second Trump presidency is scaring swing state Democrats to the core. Over the past few weeks four prominent swing state Democrats – three U.S. Senators and a U.S. House member running for Senate – have tried to tie themselves favorably to Trump’s policies. The irony is all four Democrats voted to impeach Former President Trump twice. Why are a string of viciously anti-Trump Democrats suddenly attaching themselves to the Trump agenda three weeks out from election day?
Americans for Limited Government President Richard Manning has a firm thesis. Manning asserted in a statement that this sudden attempt to cozy up to Trump is a strong warning sign that Harris is doing very badly in swing states, perhaps even worse in internal polling.
“My operating theory is that your opponents tell you if you are winning or losing”, Manning said. “When the Democrat Senate candidates in four swing states all are caught praising Trump or his policies in an attempt to trick people into voting for them as someone who can work with Trump – while voting to impeach him twice – you can surmise that Trump is not a dirty word with a majority of voters and that his policies are popular.”
Polling does show – repeatedly – that Trump’s policies on the economy, trade, immigration, crime, foreign policy and much more are wildly popular, so many Democrats are simply reading the writing on the wall. Despite attempting to undermine Trump at every turn, including voting twice to impeach him based on phony claims, these spineless swing state Democrats are suddenly attaching themselves to Trump’s popular policies.
The only conclusion is that while they themselves have spent their careers feeding into the same destructive America Last agenda that has hollowed out the middle class, they can no longer get elected being “anti-Trump”.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania just dropped an election video that featured Trump and tried to tie himself to Trump’s efforts to levy tariffs on Chinese goods, even though Casey supported Trump’s impeachment – twice. In a highly contested battleground state like Pennsylvania, Casey is apparently attempting to align himself with Trump’s pro-working-class message that has resonated with voters, despite attempting to undermine his presidency.
In Wisconsin, Sen. Tammy Baldwin dropped a similar video, boasting about getting Trump to sign a made in America bill – allegedly hinting she could work with Trump again should he return to the White House. Like Casey, Baldwin voted to impeach Former President Trump twice.
Then we have an add from Democrats in Ohio boasting that Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown “worked with Republicans” and wrote a bill that then-President Trump signed to crack down on illicit drugs at the border. So suddenly it is politically feasible for Democrats to admit there is a border crisis after four years of the Biden-Harris administration’s failed open borders agenda? Let’s not forget that Brown also voted to impeach the Former President twice.
Then there is Rep. Elissa Slotkin who is running for Senate in Michigan, Slotkin just released an add criticizing electric vehicle mandates, a sudden flip from her previous position. Slotkin said in the video, “no one should tell us what to buy, and no one is gonna mandate anything”. This recent turn of events comes after Slotkin voted against legislation to block the Biden-Harris administration’s new mandates on the sale of electric vehicles. Like her fellow Democrats in the senate, Slotkin voted to impeach Trump twice in the House.
Self-serving Democrats are simply reading the writing on the wall and attempting to attach themselves to what the people want, despite attempting to impeach him less than four years ago. Trump’s policy positions are widely popular across a range of issues, and it is no longer politically feasible to oppose his commonsense approach to immigration and the economy.
According to a recent YouGov survey, Trump leads Harris by double digits on the top three most important issues to voters – inflation, the economy, and immigration. Trump also leads Harris on six other important issues, from the Israel-Hamas war to the war in Ukraine, foreign policy in general, crime, guns and disaster response. Trump leads Harris by 12 points on inflation, nine points on the economy, and 14 points on immigration, according to the survey. He has also carved out broad leads among swing voter groups – including a 19-point lead on immigration among independents.
In the final weeks of the election, it isn’t particularly shocking to see duplicitous Democrats changing their ideology with the political tide, but what it does indicate is they would struggle to get elected in November without attempting to ride the coattails of Trump’s America First populism. It also indicates who they anticipate winning the White House.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
