Media Warn Democrats of Midterm ‘Shellacking,’ Citing Immigration, Black Vote, Crime

The establishment media elites have warned this week the Democrat Party could suffer massive midterm election losses to a strong Republican Party with a populist message.

Among the reasons for the “shellacking” is soaring crime, inflation, and illegal immigration, which are impacting demographics of the nation that have traditionally voted for the Democrat Party.

“Democrats fear midterm drubbing as party leaders rush to defend blue seats,” Toluse Olorunnipa penned at the Washington Post on Friday. The article reported how “Democrats across the country scrambled Thursday to bolster candidates in places President Biden carried safely in 2020, the latest sign of panic that they could face major losses in next week’s midterm elections”:

“Democratic candidates are either avoiding border issues or talking about them on Republicans’ terms. And the party’s grass-roots allies are struggling for cash and battling burnout,” Ulloa complained. U.S. Border Patrol agents have apprehended a record-setting 2.2 million illegal migrants in Fiscal Year 22.

Migrants wait to be processed by US Border Patrol after they illegally crossed the US southern border with Mexico on October 9, 2022 in Eagle Pass, Texas. – In the 2022 fiscal year US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has had over 2 million encounters with migrants at the US-Mexico border, setting a new record in CBP history. (Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images)

Crime is another topic media elites have alerted as a major worry. The New York Times’s Julie Bosman, Jack Healy, and Campbell Robertson wrote an article Friday titled, “Fear of Crime Looms Large for Voters, to Republicans’ Advantage.” The article speaks to the concern that “independent voters have warmed to Republican candidates across the country who are emphasizing crime and public safety in their closing messages.”

The Times’s reporters noted the issue of crime is not just an inner-city liability. “And even if most Americans are insulated from the frequent shootings and robberies that plague many poor urban neighborhoods, they now say they feel more personally vulnerable to getting murdered, mugged, burglarized or sexually assaulted”:

Year after year, large percentages of Americans have told pollsters they think crime is getting worse, no matter what the underlying numbers say. Now, growing numbers of Democrats, Republicans and independents are all saying that crime is getting worse in their own communities.

The issue of crime could impact many significant races, reported CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere, who wrote of “New York Democrats’ potential big losses next week.” The 2,314-word article intimated New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) may lose her race to Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) due to crime:

Democratic officials and strategists in New York tell CNN they are bracing for what could be stunning losses in the governor’s race and in contests for as many as four US House seats largely in the suburbs.

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But going into Election Day, New York Democrats worry about a double whammy from how they’ve struggled to address crime: Swing voters turned off by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and suburban House Democrats go vote Republican, while base Democrats in the city, dejected by talk of how awful things are, don’t turn out at all.

New York Police Department (NYPD) officers enter a subway at a station in New York, US, on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. New York City’s subway system is carrying fewer riders than expected this year as crime has spiked, including a fatal shooting on Sunday and a violent subway attack last month that shook the city. Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Black voter turnout is another worry of the media elites. The Washington Post’s Dan Balz acknowledged in an article titled, “Democrats count on huge Black turnout, but has the party delivered in return?” that Democrats are losing the black vote.:

One overriding question is whether they [black voters] will turn out in numbers big enough to offset those GOP advantages. Regardless, many Black voters fear a future in which overt racism becomes more apparent. They have concerns about whether Biden, who is well liked, has the strength to unify the country around a more positive vision. And there are questions about whether the Democratic Party speaks to Black voters as effectively as needed.

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Black voters are not a monolith, and their attitudes differ based on upbringing, geography and other factors. Still, surveys show that nationally, Black voters, particularly older ones, tend to be less liberal on many issues than, say, many liberal White Democrats.

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Still, a common critique, even from those whose values tightly align with the Democrats, is that the party has taken Black voters for granted, counting on their votes but not offering reciprocal support for some of the issues they prioritize.

A Republican surge in early voting is the last issue the media elites have warned the Democrat Party could overwhelm Tuesday’s election. New York Times‘s Nick Corasaniti wrote a Thursday article, “Americans Flock to Vote Early as Hints Emerge of Republican Strength.” The report admitted the GOP is doing very well across many important Senate battleground states:

Republicans are largely faring better across the country, with early vote totals running ahead of their 2020 levels in battleground states like Nevada and Florida as well as in deep-blue states like California.

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The signs of a Republican advantage line up with polls showing the party on stronger footing in the campaign’s final days, riding a historically typical backlash to an unpopular first-term president and widespread voter unease about economic issues.

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In the six other states that include age ranges in their voting data, voters aged 18 to 25 make up just 4.3 percent of the overall early ballot totals. By comparison, voters over 40 make up more than 86 percent of the total early vote in those states. That trend would seem to favor Republicans.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.