Republicans have found that their key legislative accomplishment in the last two years, the tax cuts passed in December, aren’t nearly as popular as they had hoped they would be, and the AP reports that the party is now “embracing anxiety as a tool to motivate voters.” As a result, ads for Republican candidates have much more to say about world-ending immigration and the dangers of a Nancy Pelosi-led Congress than they do about pocketbook issues likes wages and employment.
Along those lines, Mike Allen of Axios says that Rudy Giuliani's numerous recent appearances are part of the strategy to motivate Republican voters by “using the Mueller investigation to fuel the Republican base's rage.”
This “midterm messaging mess” prompted Matt Bennet of the centrist policy shop Third Way to comment:
"I can’t think of a recent election cycle in which both parties thought (or still think) they had killer issues to run on and both are totally wrong. Democrats can’t run on Russia/Mueller (because it just doesn’t motivate most voters, despite how serious and important it is), and Republicans can’t run on the tax cuts because, among other things, Trump used his outside voice to say they’re for the rich."
