Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Republicans have tried to find a new boogeyman this year as they rail against Democratic socialism and the \u201cradical\u201d left: Zohran Mamdani. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n
Still more mentioned than all of them, at least in campaign ads: former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
A POLITICO review of hundreds of ads running in battleground House and Senate races in recent months shows Republicans largely haven\u2019t seized on progressive icons in paid media. Instead, Biden is the Democrat most likely to be mentioned in GOP ads this cycle, coming up across dozens of races.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has frequently sought to blame Biden<\/a> for high prices and other challenges that his administration has faced. Even so, the former president has become a far less useful punching bag for Republicans since leaving office and remaining largely out of the spotlight: At this time in the 2024 cycle, Biden had been mentioned in more than 1,000 Republican House and Senate ads, according to AdImpact data.<\/p>\n The data illustrates how Republicans have been unable to land on a clear villain as they seek to convince voters that Democratic control of Congress would be worse than keeping the GOP in charge. Their warnings about old establishment figures like Biden and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi don\u2019t land like they once did. But they also haven\u2019t been able to seize on emerging democratic socialists like they had hoped to.<\/p>\n Democrats\u2019 foil, meanwhile, has never been more obvious, with Trump\u2019s approval rating in the mid-thirties amid continued high prices and the Iran war.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one will match the level of Pelosi for Republicans, in part because the Obamacare vote was such a touchstone moment. And the \u2018we have to pass it to find out what\u2019s in it,\u2019\u201d said Doug Heye, a longtime Republican operative who noted he still has \u201cFire Pelosi\u201d swag from the Republicans\u2019 successful 2010 midterm rout. The then-speaker was central to the GOP\u2019s campaign message that year.<\/p>\n Part of the challenge for Republicans comes from Democrats\u2019 lack of a clear leader<\/a>. Pelosi stepped down from Democratic leadership at the start of 2023, and her successor, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) does not elicit the same animus from Republicans. In the 2022 cycle, her last term as Democratic leader, Pelosi was invoked in more than 80 GOP ads, POLITICO\u2019s analysis found. Now, she\u2019s mentioned just a handful of times, while Jeffries hasn\u2019t been mentioned in any battleground TV ads this year, according to the POLITICO review of transcripts.<\/p>\n Biden was an easy target for the GOP in 2022 and 2024, when Republicans blamed him for high inflation and the cost of living. Now, poll after poll<\/a> shows that voters are more likely to hold Trump \u2014 not Biden \u2014 responsible for the current state of the U.S. economy, even as Trump tries to redirect the blame.<\/p>\n Even Kamala Harris, the most recent Democratic standard-bearer as their 2024 nominee, is named less often in paid media this cycle than Biden. And among other potential future Democratic presidential candidates, only California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez appear as Republican foils \u2014 and not as often as Harris or Biden.<\/p>\n Ocasio-Cortez is often mentioned by Republicans in the same sentence as Sanders, especially when the GOP seeks to tie Democrats in battleground races to the party\u2019s progressive wing. In Michigan\u2019s hotly contested Senate race, former public health official Abdul El-Sayed was endorsed by both \u2014 something his opponent Mike Rogers and GOP outside groups have seized on.<\/p>\n \u201cEl Sayed is endorsed by extreme liberals like AOC, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders,\u201d one recent ad<\/a> from the conservative super PAC Sentinel Action Fund says.<\/p>\n Some Republicans have sought to run against the progressives even when there are no such ties: One ad that ran earlier this year<\/a> from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state\u2019s GOP comptroller promised to stand up to Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and the \u201cnew radical left.\u201d Neither Sanders nor Ocasio-Cortez have endorsed in either race.<\/p>\n Most often, the GOP has run ads seeking to tie Democratic candidates to socialism or communism \u2014 the concepts themselves \u2014 in dozens of House battleground races and nearly every major Senate race. Just this week, the Trump administration launched a national $20 million DHS-funded<\/a> campaign-style ad spree that features Trump lambasting \u201ccommunism, socialism, and Marxism.\u201d<\/p>\n But when it comes to specific political figures \u2014 like Mamdani, New York City\u2019s mayor \u2014 it gets complicated. Republicans once salivated at the prospect of Mamdani<\/a> as a foil when he was first elected last year. But his first year in office has largely boosted his standing with voters, complicating efforts to turn his tenure into a negative for Democrats.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s surprising continued embrace of the New York City mayor<\/a> \u2014 just last week, the president stood by Mamdani and said he hoped he would \u201cbe a great mayor\u201d \u2014 has further complicated GOP efforts to paint him as a villain.<\/p>\n In a handful of swingy New York congressional districts, Republicans have still attempted to tie their opponents to Mamdani, while Democrats have pushed back on the connection. In New York\u2019s 21st District, which Trump won by more than 20 points two years ago, Democratic dairy farmer Blake Gendebien ran an ad<\/a> arguing that his Republican opponent wants voters to think he\u2019s \u201crunning against Zohran Mamdani\u201d but \u201cthat\u2019s a load of bull.\u201d<\/p>\n The GOP has characterized prominent Democrats as socialist for decades. As progressives won a series of contested primaries this year, some Democrats worried the rise of figures with ties to the Democratic Socialists of America would give Republicans easy ammunition for the general election.<\/p>\n But being called a \u201csocialist\u201d may not have the same shock value it once did.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think just calling a candidate \u2018socialist\u2019 works that well for Republicans, particularly this late in the game,\u201d said Matt Towery, a longtime GOP pollster. \u201cIf a candidate focuses on parts of the DSA\u2019s platform and can authentically pin it on their opponent, that might work. But Republicans just assume people have a bad reaction to the term socialist, and the term doesn\u2019t elicit the same reaction it used to.\u201d<\/p>\n