Honey, the Democrats are freaking out about some polls again. Do you remember what we did to calm them down last time?
A new cluster of 2024 presidential polls published this week by The New York Times, CBS News and CNN show President Joe Biden trailing Donald Trump both nationally and in five key swing states. Taken together, those polls highlight a few concerning issues Biden’s team will need to address in the coming months. Among Democrats, though, Biden’s tough polls were treated with the urgency of an unplanned nuclear detonation.
The state polls that sent Democrats into a blood rage showed Biden trailing Trump by 4 points in Pennsylvania, 5 in Arizona and Michigan, 6 in Georgia, and a full 10 in Nevada. In fact, Biden only led in one battleground state: Wisconsin. Former Obama administration adviser David Axelrod took the panic into overdrive, all but begging Biden to drop out of the 2024 race entirely. In a sign of just how weird 2024 has already become, veteran media-industrial-complex Democrats, including Axelrod and Van Jones, are now parroting the same crusty “Biden must go” argument as Republican pundit Bill Kristol.
It’s time for Democratic elites like Axelrod to stop talking and start listening to the American people. Tuesday’s election results reveal an American electorate sick to death of the GOP’s endless war on “wokeness.” They show a Democratic Party closely in tune with the issues that move regular Americans to the polls in a way they haven’t been in years. Most importantly, Tuesday’s results portray an American public voting the way we expect them to when the economy is doing well — even if polls show most voters view the economy negatively.
That was especially noticeable in Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin spent nearly $20 million (and national conservative groups invested tens of millions more) to wrest control of the state Senate from Democrats and shore up the GOP’s thin majority in the House of Delegates. Youngkin openly turned the campaign into a referendum on his proposed ban on abortion at 15 weeks, a policy opposed by most Virginians and a centerpiece of Democrats’ 2023 messaging. National media outlets even speculated that Youngkin’s campaign model could become the Republican National Committee’s future national blueprint.
Republicans may want to hold off on elevating Youngkin to national fame. Not only did Virginia voters keep the state Senate in Democratic hands, but Democrats unexpectedly reclaimed the House as well. The night also included a historic first for progressives after Del. Danica Roem became the commonwealth’s first transgender state senator. For Youngkin, who used anti-trans fearmongering to help raise his national profile earlier this year, Roem’s rise isn’t just a failure of political tactics — it’s further proof that the governor’s much-hyped political strategy is actually a flop.
Many of the Democrats who won key elections in Virginia yesterday ran on a localized version of Biden’s presidential platform: safeguarding America’s economic growth, bolstering job creation and defending reproductive freedom. That should be some reassurance to the Biden team, who can look not just to Virginia but to Ohio to see that near-supermajorities of voters are aligned with Biden’s big priorities.
In Ohio, nearly six in 10 voters supported a measure to enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution. The measure survived a well-financed opposition effort by national right-wing groups, as well as concerns from among the pundit class that Democratic activists were overestimating Amercians’ pro-choice sentiments. That didn’t seem to be the case: pro-abortion ballot measures continue their undefeated winning streak since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Republicans have spent the year since their midterm wipeout losing special elections at a near-historic rate while Democrats are overperforming by double digits even in traditionally conservative areas. And the candidates who win are talking a lot about how Joe Biden’s legislative wins are bringing jobs and prosperity back to their local communities. State polling may indicate Biden is weak, but actual election results show voters are still turning out to deliver wins for candidates and causes associated with Biden’s agenda.
Joe Biden has his share of problems as a candidate, some of them serious. But professional Democrats who should know better are failing the public by treating a round of bad polling as legitimate cause to toss the president overboard. That’s doubly true when those Democratic pundits have easy access to some of the smartest election experts in the country, many of whom are currently reporting on Democrats’ electoral strength.
It’s reasonable to discuss whether Biden’s candidacy is the strongest version of itself. But those criticisms should hold up in the political reality we actually have — not one invented by pundits. Tuesday’s strong election results are another reminder that Democrats are making real inroads with American voters thanks in large part to a message honed by Biden. Instead of trying to boot him from the ticket, Democratic commentators should be fighting to get Biden’s winning message into every home in America.
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.