Democrats are responding to increasingly gloomy midterm election forecasts by doubling down on their out-of-touch messaging.
Leading the pack, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she doesn’t believe polling that shows voters are primarily worried about the economy.
Pelosi shrugs at inflation
Pelosi and her party have tried desperately to make the election a referendum on abortion and Republican “extremism,” but a backlash over the end of Roe v. Wade has seemed to fizzle in recent weeks.
Betting markets have Republicans taking the Senate and the House, and Republicans have retaken the advantage in generic ballot polling. Yet, when confronted with a New York Times poll showing that voters are most concerned with inflation and the tanking economy, Pelosi called it an “outlier.”
“Much of what you’ve said I don’t agree with,” Pelosi told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “The New York Times poll, I think, is an outlier poll.”
Drawing from her personal experience, Pelosi claimed that women motivated to protect legal abortion will save the Democrats’ majority.
“I can tell you that women’s concerns about their freedom are very, very much still very significant in terms of how they will vote,” she said.
Biden too…but Abrams takes the cake
The Times poll found that a combined 45 percent of voters are most worried about the economy and inflation, compared to 4 percent who said the same of abortion. The newspaper conceded that the economy is a “far more potent political issue in 2022 than abortion.”
Still, Biden echoed Pelosi the next day when asked whether he thinks inflation or abortion is more important, sneering, “They’re all important. Unlike you, there’s no one thing.”
Doocy: “Is your top domestic issue inflation or abortion?”
Biden: “They’re all important. Unlike you, there is no one thing.” pic.twitter.com/3J1BKEAHWG
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 19, 2022
But Stacey Abrams might have taken the cake. When asked how to combat inflation, the Georgia gubernatorial candidate suggested that abortion could leave families with fewer mouths to feed.
“Having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas … [and] how much food costs,” she told MSNBC.