When it comes to social media ad dollars, the Democrats have one that they feel moves the needle for them more than any other, but while they throw huge dollar amounts at it, they’re completely ignoring the elephant in the room.
According to Axios, Democrat ad dollars are being funneled into “reproductive rights” or more accurately, pro-abortion ads. This seems to be one of the few issues that actually gets people to view the Democrat Party favorably and helps candidates in races that would otherwise have no foothold. The Associated Press puts this number spent around $124 million just on abortion alone.
John Fetterman, for instance, has a slight lead over his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz by what we can safely assume is the female vote which he has in his favor at 47 percent to Oz’s 41 percent. According to a CBS poll, 70 percent of voters pointed to abortion being the reason why they support Fetterman over Oz.
After the collapse of Roe v Wade, abortion skyrocketed by 13 points in terms of importance for many voters according to Pew Research, making it the fastest-growing concern, but definitely not the most important.
As you can see by the chart below, Democrats still believe this hot iron can be struck to make it more important and so they’re funneling a lot of money into ads on the issue. While this may help with Democrats in inches, Democrats need to make advancements by yards. Even with the abortion issue as hot as it is, it’s not the hottest issue by far. Violent crime, gun policy, and the economy rank higher according to Pew, but none of these issues are playing favorably for Democrats.
However, as you can also see, what they’re not really wanting to talk about is their own leader, Joe Biden.
Dems are ploughing cash into Facebook ads about abortion.
Interestingly, zero focus on Joe Biden's presidency in their ads since March. pic.twitter.com/rTboxFBEqw
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) October 11, 2022
While it’s true that Biden isn’t up for reelection, he is the leader of the Democrat Party and it’s his White House that is steering the ship. Biden’s popularity has been abysmal and continues to be so with each passing day, making him a liability to Democrat candidates.
Also missing from the big spending list is gun control. After the shooting in Uvalde, the Democrat Party attempted to get momentum going for the issue, even going so far as to invite Matthew McConoughey to speak about it at the White House. However, despite all the king’s horses and all the king’s men coming together to really make the issue big, it just didn’t take. The 2020 election and the pandemic had created far too many new gun owners who aren’t so ready to give up their firearms, so the issue has been somewhat dropped.
Meanwhile, Republicans are putting a lot of focus on President Biden, and making his failures and the scandals surrounding him their primary talking point. Below him is a focus on mentions of former President Donald Trump. The economy, the largest mover of voter loyalties according to Pew, is fourth.
This is likely because the state of the economy under the Democrats speaks loud enough for Republicans, and sure enough, it is. The economy far outstrips any other concern by leaps and bounds, and with Democrats at the helm and the economy at its worst, Republicans are simply riding the red wave it’s causing.
This may pay off in the long run. The midterms are looking to favor Republicans heavily, but Republicans seem to be looking to fix this economic disaster in the minds of voters who will automatically link it to Biden in two short years.
