During a panel discussion on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen predicted that her party would be facing devastating losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections — arguing that they only had themselves to blame as they repeatedly failed to “listen to voters.”
In the discussion, which was moderated by host Dana Bash, Rosen predicted that Democrats were going to have “a bad night” on November 8 — asserting that their losses were largely due to the fact that they had not centered their campaigns around the issues most important to the voters: inflation and the economy.
Poll after poll continuously showed the economy & inflation are the most important issue for voters
As Biden + Democrats neglecting to address economic concerns while obsessing on Jan.6th — independents,suburban white women & Latinos are swinging in favor of voting Republicans pic.twitter.com/ce3ue8znK8
— Mona Salama (@MonaSalama_) November 3, 2022
She began by assuring the audience that she considers herself to be a “loyal Democrat,” but noted that she was not impressed with the direction that the party’s leadership had taken in the weeks leading up to the midterms.
“I’m a loyal Democrat, but I am not happy. I just think that we are — we did not listen to voters in this election and I think we are going to have a bad night,” Rosen said.
The Democratic strategist then noted that the party does not have enough time to change course before the midterms, and warned them to at least learn from what she believes will be a tough election.
“You know, this conversation’s not going to have much impact on Tuesday, but I hope it has an impact going forward,” Rosen said.
She cited the Democrats’ insistence on campaigning on “democracy being at stake” rather than economic issues as a significant reason why voters are turning away from the party.
“Because when voters tell you over and over and over again that they care mostly about the economy, listen to them!” Rosen said. “Stop talking about democracy being at stake! Democracy is at stake because people are fighting so much about what elections mean. I mean, voters have told us what they wanted to hear, and I don’t think Democrats have delivered this cycle.”
Another panel member, CNN’s Bakari Sellers, then claimed that, while Democrats’ national messaging might have gone astray, the party had some candidates — Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) — that were campaigning well and focusing on the needs of their constituents.
Rosen pushed back on Sellers’ claims, arguing that even where there are Democrat candidates who are relatively popular, there are Republican candidates who outshine them. She also noted that President Joe Biden’s unpopularity is hurting Democrats and helping Republicans.
“Mark Kelly is popular,” she agreed, adding: “But Kari Lake is more popular. And the combination of Kari Lake’s popularity and Joe Biden’s unpopularity is going to hurt Mark Kelly. And so I think we’re going to — we’re in trouble because of the top of the ticket.”
Longtime dem strategist @hilaryr: “I'm a loyal Democrat, but I am not happy. I just thinking we did not listen to voters in this election and I think we are going to have a bad night”
Notes that voters kept saying the economy was the number 1 issue
pic.twitter.com/Omh9pqtl50— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) November 6, 2022
