There is ample precedent for a president trying — and failing — to message his way through a recovery that has yet to be felt by voters. In 1993 and again in 2009, Americans perceived that the economy was recovering more slowly, and more unevenly, than expected, even though it was, indeed, recovering. The ensuing midterms brought painful lessons for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama alike.
For Republicans, the job has been fairly simple. The party has placed a heavy focus on the rise in prices of everyday goods — gas prices in particular — as a means of symbolizing that voters are worse off under Biden. Advisers to former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said following his loss last week that the economy, along with the pandemic, were the top issues on the minds of voters — and both were hammered down the stretch by Republican Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin.
Since August, Republican groups have spent at least $894,000 on Facebook ads that mention inflation and rising costs, with high-spending campaigns that target Biden and Democrats on gas prices accounting for nearly half of that, according to an analysis prepared for POLITICO by Bully Pulpit Interactive, a communications and marketing agency.
American Action Network, the nonprofit affiliated with House Republicans’ chief super PAC, dedicated nearly half of its spending since August on attacks over gas prices and inflation. Those ads mentioned by name more than two dozen House Democrats, the BPI analysis found. The conservative site Newsmax spent more than $100,000 to promote content going after Biden on inflation and “wealth destruction,” House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy spent $61,000 on list-building ads messaging rising inflation, dubbing the spending increases “Demflation.”
Reacting to the inflation report Wednesday, McCarthy said the public was getting fed up: “The American people want an end to the chaos this administration has created.”
