Like the race for the White House, the battle for control of Congress has been upended in historic fashion — a few times in just a handful of weeks.
Many uncertainties lie ahead. But this much is clear: The focus on President Joe Biden’s mental acuity and age had sucked up all the political oxygen. Now that’s off the campaign table. And that’s a huge boost for Democrats.
This by no means suggests certain success for likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris or the party’s candidates in battleground races. Their campaigns face big challenges and polls show Trump continues to lead in many swing states.
But at least for now, Democrats no longer appear to be back on their heels and are getting back on message.
“We’re focused on the stakes of this election and calling out what Donald Trump is,” said Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego, who has taken on a growing role in the Democratic campaign nationwide.
Jacobs said Democrats are focusing on three broad themes:
• Protecting freedoms, particularly individual choices they say are threatened by Trump, including access to abortion and other reproductive rights.
• Saving democracy in the wake of Trump ers staging an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, to block certification of Biden’s legitimate election.
• Building an economy “for everyone,” while contending Trump’s plan to enact tariffs on foreign countries will raise prices for average Americans.
Biden may not be in the campaign mix, though his record and Republican questions about whether he should step down as president will be. Regardless, GOP candidates will continue to criticize the istration on ineffective border control and the cost of living that still weighs heavily on many voters — despite various positive economic indicators such as low unemployment, improved wages and a strong stock market.
That is playing out in the 49th Congressional District that straddles the San Diego-Orange County line, where Republican Matt Gunderson is seeking to unseat Democratic Rep. Mike Levin.
On Sunday, Gunderson urged the public “to respect a very difficult and personal decision by our president” to withdraw from the race.
“It doesn’t change the fundamental fact that Mike Levin has voted 100 percent of the time with the failed Biden-Harris agenda of open borders, runaway inflation, and higher taxes,” he continued in a statement. “Regardless of who becomes the Democratic nominee for president, the voters of the 49th District will hold Mike Levin able.”
Immigration in particular has been a potent issue for Trump and other Republicans for years. After Biden enacted tough restrictions on asylum — a policy ed by Levin — illegal border crossings have plummeted. Whether that continues and takes some steam out of the Republican criticism is one of the many uncertainties from now until the Nov. 5 election.
Levin said Biden “put country first” in stepping away from the campaign and quickly threw his behind Harris. Then he turned back to the Democrats’ main campaign theme.
“Now, we must come together to prevail against the incalculable threat Donald Trump poses to the American institutions of freedom and democracy,” Levin said in a statement Sunday. “Trump seeks to overthrow the values and principles that have guided us towards justice and prosperity for nearly two and a half centuries. We cannot let him do that.”
Control of Congress had been up in the air as the 2024 campaign season got under way. Part of the argument Democratic Party leaders such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi reportedly made to Biden is that his continued candidacy not only threatened Democratic control of the White House, but could bring down House and Senate candidates. Levin had ed the ranks of those urging Biden to withdraw.
The 49th District race had long been considered competitive, but not a top battleground, though questions about Biden and the assassination attempt on Trump may have scrambled that calculation. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently added Gunderson to the releases slamming other California GOP House candidates in higher-priority races.
Whether Levin becomes a top candidate for Democrats to protect may be determined by how much the Republican National Congressional Committee spends on Gunderson.
Harris may have moved the conversation away from questions about Biden’s health and age, but there may be other problems ahead. Her performance as a presidential candidate in the 2020 election was widely criticized. Meanwhile, as a woman of color in power, she has been a top target for online trolls and political attacks for years.
Her record and leadership qualities will be heavily scrutinized. Harris was tasked by Biden with leading the istration’s diplomatic campaign to address the “root causes” of migration from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, including poverty, corruption and violence. Republicans wrongly dubbed Harris the “border czar” and blamed her for earlier record illegal border crossings.
Regardless, Democrats are hopeful a Harris candidacy will galvanize the party, particularly in her native Golden State, where she served as San Francisco district attorney, state attorney general and U.S. senator.
Analysts like to say that the road to the House majority runs through California. Jacobs said Harris will help in battleground races here, while energizing segments of the Democratic constituency such as young voters, who surveys have suggested had a lackluster attitude toward Biden.
Jacobs, one of the youngest of Congress at 35, has appeared before groups of young voters across the country and said Harris’ “popularity among young people has skyrocketed.”
At age 59, Harris is about 18 years younger than Trump. Some left-leaning commentators have complained that the Republican nominee’s sometimes disted ramblings and seeming incoherence have gotten a free from scrutiny, not to mention his wildly erroneous statements. He recently said “real inflation is way over 50 percent,” when the actual rate is 3 percent.
Pointedly, Jacobs said a few times that the media must do more to “hold Trump able.”
And she noted something else.
“Trump will be the oldest nominee in history,” Jacobs said of the 78-year-old former president. “I think that has to be part of the discussion.”
Democrats no doubt would now relish that.
