Pelosi talks health care; Trump left out of script
WASHINGTON — A recent spate of hate-based violence is a reason to talk about prescription drug prices. President Trump’s desire to end birthright citizenship means it’s time to talk about preserving health care. In the home stretch of the campaign, Nancy Pelosi refuses to be dislodged from her message.
Trump has spent days tweeting about immigration to fire up his red base. He has ordered more than 5,000 active-duty military troops to the border, more than are serving in Syria, to meet a few thousand impoverished migrants who are weeks away from the U.S., and says he may increase that number to 15,000 soldiers. He’s suggested he would seek to issue an executive order to limit birthright citizenship, though legal scholars are mostly agreed that any change would require a constitutional amendment.
But Pelosi is signaling to her party: Don’t take the bait.
The House Democratic leader is unabashedly confident about her party’s chances of retaking the chamber next week, telling late--
night TV host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night: “We will win.”
Poised to regain the House speakership that she lost in 2010 if her prediction is accurate, the San Francisco Democrat is urging party candidates to resist reacting to every Trump development. Instead, she says, stick to the “For the People”-branded messaging that Democrats believe is key to flipping Republican-held districts: preserving affordable health care, growing wages and cleaning up corruption in Washington.
“Everywhere I turn, every ad I see is about the economy or it’s about pre-existing conditions, which is exactly what they want to be talking about,” said Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi’s former chief of staff and now policy director at a Washington lobbying and law firm. “You’ve got to give a reason for people to vote for you.”
Pelosi has been modeling the tactic.
“President Trump’s new claim he can unilaterally end the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship shows Republicans’ spiraling desperation to distract from their assault on Medicare, Medicaid and people with pre-existing conditions,” Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday.
In a “dear colleague” letter to Democrats on Monday “on protecting the American people from domestic terrorism,” Pelosi closed by pivoting back to the blueprint, saying, “By relentlessly driving home our For the People message of health, jobs and integrity in government will we win a better future for all Americans.”
The non sequiturs are no accident. Despite the midterm elections being framed in national conversation as a referendum on Trump, Democrats aren’t campaigning on him.
An analysis by the Media Project at Wesleyan University found that 54 percent of proDemocrat ads this election cycle have mentioned health care, compared with just over 30 percent for Republicans.
The left-aligned Center for American Progress’ political arm commissioned polling in early September that validated the approach, according to a strategy document shared with The Chronicle. The party’s key talking points tested favorably and improved voters’ view of Democrats, the group’s research found.
Preserving health care was by far the most important issue for the swing voters, the center found.
The GOP also seems to be sensing a need to play defense. Despite his administration supporting a lawsuit that would erase protections in the Affordable Care Act for people with pre-existing conditions, Trump has tweeted that Republicans will be the ones to protect them.
Pelosi, meanwhile, is a favorite bogeyman in Republican attack ads, something she attributes to being “a very effective legislator.” Another Wesleyan Media Project study found that Pelosi was the congressional leader most featured in attack ads the last three election cycles.
Trump has gone after her at times on Twitter, including a tweet in June in which he accused her and “her sidekick, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer,” of wanting to protect “illegal immigrants.”
Responding to Pelosi’s comments on Colbert’s show, a spokesman for the Republicans’ campaign arm, Matt Gorman, tweeted, “While Pelosi is measuring the drapes, we’re knocking doors.”
His colleague Jesse Hunt told Fox News during a conversation about voter enthusiasm Tuesday that “young voters remember the last time Nancy Pelosi was in control of the House, the economy was in shambles.” He said that was what’s “at stake” in the election.
Pelosi’s status as a Republican target hasn’t kept her off the trail. According to her office, she visited 30 cities in October for a mix of fundraisers and campaign events, stumping in states including Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Arizona and California.
In a sit-down last month with The Chronicle’s editorial board, Pelosi said she has told her Democratic colleagues and candidates to steer as far from the subject of Trump as possible.
“I say to the members … don’t even talk about him,” Pelosi said. “He is self-evidently what he is; you don’t have to bring him up. So to the candidates and to the members, you just connect with the voters in ways that talk about their financial stability.”