The analysis — which was done by the group Way to Win and was provided to me — suggests large TV-ad expenditures on emphasizing bipartisan outreach do not appear to have paid dividends for House Democrats in the 2020 elections.People are trained to say, "bipartisan is good," because they've had 40 years of TV news and NPR telling them that, but they basically think it's necessary to get things done, and that what's stopping things from getting done is "partisanship."
So, you know, get things done. Also it's hard to make a compelling case that team D is better if you're running around saying how great team R is.
Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, the vice president of Way to Win, said that, in sum, Democrats in 2020 sent mixed messages: They touted their willingness to work with Republicans, even as Republicans called them socialists and extremists.Who wants to vote for people who won't even stick up for themselves? Who are these great Republicans you want to work with? The one who just ran an ad saying you love to kill babies?
A lot of people who earn a lot of money running campaigns, and their friends, were quick to blame "DEFUND THE POLICE" and similar for the less than stellar House performance. And, hey, maybe they're right that it didn't help, but that's in the category of "things I, a person with a $5 million campaign budget, cannot control, unlike these ads calling my opponents noble patriots, which I commissioned and ran."
Maybe you don't want to defund the police, but you should run on "defunding" the Republicans.