Dear Dems: Please Just Run Against Mitch
By McKenzie Wilson
Republican Super PACs blanket the airwaves with her name. Trump lampoons her at his campaign rallies. And Republicans in Congress blame her for everything up to the January 6th insurrection. For over a decade, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been the focus of never-ending GOP attacks, leading one prominent NRCC consultant to remark, “Nancy Pelosi is the most unpopular politician in the country.”
But they’re wrong. Despite their efforts, the most unpopular politician in the country is Mitch McConnell — and it’s an opportunity Democrats must seize to win in the upcoming midterms.
Up and down the ballot, Democrats are running in tight races that could allow the anti-democracy, anti-abortion, and anti-climate Republican party to reclaim power in Congress. On top of highlighting major Democratic achievements like the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats should go on offense and hold Republicans accountable for their flagrant and offensive policies.
Despite our party’s fascination with Trump, there’s really no one who better embodies the degradation of our politics and the Republican Party than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. If he is reinstated as Senate Majority Leader, he will push to pass some of the most dangerous and corrupt parts of the GOP agenda into law, and he won’t hesitate to act immorally in the face of standard Senate procedures and traditions.
Senator McConnell isn't just disliked by Democrats: he also has one lowest favorability ratings in U.S. politics, according to Data for Progress polling. Across 232 surveys of likely voters conducted from January 2021 to July 2022, Senator McConnell never cracked a 30% approval rating. Mitch McConnell also consistently ranks 10-15 points lower than Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been perpetually characterized as the Democratic bogeyman by House Republicans and is one of the top political targets in Republican advertisements.
Our polling shows that voters recognize him as a threat, and it’s an opportunity Democrats should capitalize on. It's long past time for Democrats to go on offense against the Republican Party: Democrats should emphasize in every campaign that a vote for a Republican is a vote to potentially reinstate Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader and open a pathway to the implementation of a dangerous and unpopular Republican agenda. It’s time for Democrats to flip the script and make Republicans up and down the ballot answer for their party’s affiliation with a figure as unpopular as Mitch McConnell.
For one, McConnell is leading the party that wants to end Social Security. In February 2022, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) released an 11-point plan to “Rescue America”, which included plans to “sunset,” or end, all federal legislation after five years and impose federal income taxes on all Americans. That includes Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act, some of the most popular government programs in the country. Data for Progress polling demonstrates that his plan is wildly unpopular, even with the majority of Republican voters. Scott leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and his plan has been endorsed by several leading members of the Republican party. And Republicans who haven’t explicitly endorsed Scott’s plan have made reference to cutting Social Security benefits, framing Social Security as an entitlement program, rather than a landmark government program that helps Americans retire in dignity after a lifetime of hard work. This plan is the Republican Party platform. And it’s the Democrats golden ticket to go on the offense against Mitch McConnell and his caucus.
Democrats should also be talking about McConnell’s abysmal record legislating. During the 116th session of Congress, which convened from January 2019-January 2021, approximately 1% of nearly 15,000 bills introduced were passed into law. By the end of the 116th Congress, Senator McConnell held over 400 House-passed bills that he refused to bring to a vote in the Senate, including dozens of popular, bipartisan bills that would have expanded health care, protected pensions, and invested in clean energy. This legislation — all sent to die in Senator McConnell’s “legislative graveyard” — memorialized Speaker McConnell’s 116th Congress as one of the most ineffective sessions in American history.
As if that wasn’t enough, perhaps the most powerful anecdote for why Democrats must take up the anti-McConnell mantle comes from Republicans themselves. For more than a decade, the GOP has relied on attacking Nancy Pelosi as a consistent hit against Democrats writ-large. In 2010, the speaker was featured in $75 million dollars worth of negative advertising against Democrats — a midterm election message that ultimately led Republicans to pick up 63 seats and win back the House. Pelosi’s presence in negative advertising has continued to grow: in 2018, a whopping one in three Republican ads attacked Nancy Pelosi. And this year, the NRCC already has ads attacking Pelosi up and running in vulnerable Democratic districts, including Reps. Chris Pappas (D-NH-1) and Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ-1).
It’s time for Democrats to take a page out of the Republicans’ playbook. The most unpopular politician in the country is Mitch McConnell, and Democrats need to remind voters why. While McConnell might not be up for re-election this year, every Democrat running for Congress is inherently running against him and his agenda. If you’re running in 2022, run against Mitch.
McKenzie Wilson (@McKenzieAWilson) is the Communications Director at Data for Progress.