Democrats plan to track and corner Republican 2024 candidates on Trump
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[September 26, 2023]
By Jarrett Renshaw
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - When Republican U.S. Representative Don Bacon
was asked if he supports Donald Trump's bid for the White House next
year at Nebraska town hall last month, he batted away the question,
saying it was too early to say, given the former president hadn't yet
secured the nomination.
Despite the non-answer, a Democratic activist with a video camera filmed
the exchange, and it was quickly blasted it online with the headline
Bacon "refuses to tell Nebraskans if he supports Trump."
The attempt to tie a vulnerable Republican like Bacon is a scenario
likely to be repeated in competitive districts around the country in the
months to come, Democratic strategists tell Reuters. While U.S.
President Joe Biden and his reelection campaign have rarely commented on
Trump's string of criminal indictments, Democrats running for state and
local office across the nation are taking the opposite tactic and making
the charges a key part of their campaign.
Democrats are hoping to exploit what they see as a structural weakness
for Republicans in battleground states in 2024: any Republican candidate
who criticizes Trump risks losing the party's Trump-loving voter base.
But they believe any Republican who doesn't condemn Trump risks losing
more moderate Republicans and independent voters they need to beat a
Democrat.
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“Republicans are contorting themselves to not alienate Trump supporters
while appealing to the more moderate parts of their party," said
Jennifer Holdsworth, a Democratic strategist. "Democrats are going to
work hard to make sure that is no longer a tenable strategy."
While Trump's legal woes have boosted his popularity with some
Republican primary voters, many independent voters, who often decide
both national and local elections, see Trump's potential criminal
conviction as a reason to vote against him, Reuters/Ipsos polling and
reporting in key states like Arizona shows.
The Bacon campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Republican
party officials say Democrats' time would be better spent worrying about
their own presidential candidate Joe Biden's popularity.
"Biden's approval ratings have been under water since his botched
Afghanistan withdrawal. It's been two years and Democrats refuse to look
in the mirror," said Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for the Republican
National Committee.
'SAME DAY FOOTAGE'
Democrats are monitoring local radio interviews, scouring news stories
and hiring teams of political trackers armed with cameras to blanket
Republican events, to capture the moment a candidate is asked a Trump
loyalty question.
North Carolina, Arizona and Pennsylvania Democrats are currently hiring
"trackers" to follow, record and post footage of Republicans at local
events, according to job websites.
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![](../images/092623PIX/news_p92.jpg)
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump speaks during a 2024 presidential campaign rally in Dubuque,
Iowa, U.S. September 20, 2023. REUTERS/Scott Morgan
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For $4,000 a month, a tracker will be responsible for
"comprehensively tracking opponents' schedules" and providing "same
day footage" to "drive the campaign narrative," one such job posting
says.
Tracking, essentially following an opponent with the hopes they slip
up or do something that can be used to influence voters, has become
a ubiquitous practice in U.S. political campaigns in recent years.
It will only grow in 2024, some Democrats say.
American Bridge 21st Century, the largest research, tracking, and
rapid response operation in the Democratic Party, spent $84 million
tracking Republican candidates and using the footage to run ads
against them in their home states in 2020.
In 2024, the operation is "going to be bigger than it's ever been,"
President Pat Dennis told Reuters.
IN THE SUBURBS
Republicans in suburban districts are the most squeezed by Trump
politics, making them the best areas to film, Dennis said.
"The amount of damage Trump has done to the Republican Party in the
suburbs is extraordinary. So that's sort of the pain point for
them," Dennis said.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, has a
national favorability rating of around 41%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos
poll conducted Sept 8-14, which had a credibility interval, a
measure of precision, of about 2 percentage points. That's roughly
tied with the equally unpopular Biden.
Pennsylvania Democrats are taking aim at Dave McCormick, the
Republican challenger to incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Casey Jr. for
remaining silent on Trump's legal woes and hiring former Trump
officials during a failed 2022 Senate run.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Sep/26/images/ads/current/ldn_sda_NILA_012823.png)
McCormick jumped into the senate race on Thursday after spending
weeks debating whether Trump would be a drag on his campaign. He did
not mention the former president during his campaign speech, but his
aides say they know questions about Trump are coming.
"Dave will speak to the Trump question, which I know he will see on
the trail and when he's out in interviews for sure," a McCormick
campaign strategist said.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and
Alistair Bell)
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