Beating Republicans can and should be FUN!
Rachel Bitecofer, the "poll whisperer," has a new book out entitled, "Hit 'Em Where It Hurts: How To Save Democracy by Beating Republicans At Their Own Game." It's the number one new release on Amazon for books on political parties.
Tuesday night, she sat down with Stephanie Ruhle.
STEPHANIE RUHLE (HOST): ...Polling shows that in the hypothetical Biden-Trump matchup, Donald Trump has widened his lead to five points. With us for more, the election whisper, political strategist Rachel Bitecofer. Her new book, "Hit 'Em Where It Hurts: How To Save Democracy by Beating Republicans At Their Own Game." It is out today. And I'm thrilled to have you here. This book is filled with advice for Democrats, specifically heading into this election. What is your number one piece of advice? The administration's watching.
RACHEL BITECOFER: I think it's this, right? When Republicans go low, we have to hit him where it hurts. We can't return with sanity, policy, or wonky conversations. We have to come back with a motive, simplistic soundbite talking point rhetoric that's intentionally hyperbolic, like theirs, so that we can offset this asymmetry. It's very difficult for us to compete with the Republican message. If you look at swing races that we've lost like Tim Ryan in Ohio, or Val Demings down in Florida, we ran perfect campaigns, moderates, centrist, 'I'm an ex-cop,' I'm going to work across the aisle, and then Ron Desantis ran a MAGA-style campaign, yet he still won swing voters. So I think it's very important for people to recognize the things that we, as liberals, don't think wIll work or don't like actually are quite effective in the broader electorate.
RUHLE: Well, the current president, President Biden, you know, stands for decency. He stands for good.
BITECOFER: Right.
RUHLE: He gets a lot of criticism for his age. And you and I can't say he's basically the same age as Donald Trump. We can say it's a just, but it's something we hear in polling time and again. You heard that very effective messaging from the likes of Gavin Newsom. Should the Biden campaign kind of rolling out the next generation of democrats, like the Avengers, a Gavin Newsom, a Gretchen Whitmer, a Andy Beshear, these superstars that are great at messaging and know how to punch?
BITECOFER: No, I definitely think he should. I think they should go with an aggressive surrogate strategy this cycle. And we know that we have some proof that hit them where they heard winners in Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, and John Fetterman. There's so many in that Democratic bench; it's so deep, which is why if we would've had a primary, it would've been a very competitive primary. So utilizing those people, I think, is very important. But I do want to point out, and this is in relation to what Michael Steele was saying in the previous segment, Democrats have pivoted. We are sitting in a world in which this process and this strategy has been deployed on the map in 2022. And where it was deployed, in Arizona and Michigan, we walked the GOP's butt. They had no answer for it, because of the end of the day, if we go to tell swing voters these people are extremists, who are coming for your freedom, it is going to be a very powerful message in 2024.
RUHLE: When you think about this big tent party, right, President Biden has to get a whole lot of people out there excited, and excited to vote for him. We know that we have heard from a lot of progressives, a lot of young progressives, they're uninspired, they're not excited. Some of them are downright angry. What does the president do to reach out to those more progressive voices, answer some of their priorities, while at the same time, not move too far from where he is and lose those swing voters, lose those independents?
BITECOFER: Well, there is danger in the idea of delivery and benefit. So look at student loan reform. That is not something centrist Democrats were interested in pursuing. Biden did that for the progressive base. And you know, there's not really any benefit for that. They're not thanking Biden for that. It's kind of like what have you done for me lately, right? So I do know that the youth disaffection over Gaza is going to be a huge issue. But at the same time, people have to understand most humans, and that's the most important point of the book, most people are not us, they're not watching the 11th hour, unfortunately.
RUHLE: Not true.
BITECOFER: They don't know who Mike Johnson is, like, average Americans, right? So when I go into a store, and I talk to people about politics, they don't know that the Republican Party controls the house. They don't know why the impeachment failed for Trump. They don't understand that, actually, the Republican senators weren't bound to that.
RUHLE: So what do you do for that?
BITECOFER: So what you do is you assemble -- you have rough clay. We're not gonna fix the clay. [laughter] But what we have to do is meet it where it is. So the strategy and devolves her becomes totally different. Our strategy previously is let me appeal to you on policy specifics and try to win you over to my side. And what the strategy now is, let me make sure that you know what the modern Republican Party stands for. Because voters are telling us again and again in data that they still think the Republican Party stands for, "good on the economy and good on national defense." And we've been watching politics for the last 20 years, we know that the republican party has not been good on either those issues. So it really is about redefining who those Republicans are and making sure that people who are violating their oath of office aren't able to run on the mantle of "being a moderate."
RUHLE: Rough clay. Rachel Bitecofer has signed off this evening, giving us the vision of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in a major motion picture, Ghost. Thank you very much. Rachel, great to see you. And on that note, I wish you a very, very good night.
