Kansas voters are tired of impeachment. What do they want Democrats to talk about?
Rep. Sharice Davids finds that issues such as health care, prescription drug costs and infrastructure are more on the minds of constituents than impeachment.
“I think folks are probably coming in and talking to me about what’s literally impacting their daily life ,” the 3d District Kansas Democrat told McClatchy.
Health care ranks first on the list of what people are talking with her about. Davids said “It is the thing that‘s causing not only the most stress emotionally but financially.”
Infrastructure also comes up often, she said, “partly because of the severe weather events we’ve been seeing.
But impeachment? “I hear about that (other) stuff way more,” Davids said.
It’s a common theme in swing Democratic areas around the country.
“In some ways there might be impeachment fatigue from some of the constituents. They seem more interested in talking about policy, drug pricing, infrastructure,” said Rep. Ami Bera, a California Democrat, of his findings at a recent town hall meeting.
None of this is much of a surprise to House Democratic leaders, who have long understood that voters in many districts want to hear from lawmakers about day to day issues impacting their lives.
Bera noted that his office did get a lot of constituent contacts about impeachment while the House was debating the issue last month.
Lately, though, “The folks that are watching the trial probably already see a foregone conclusion with the Senate, I think,” he said. “Many of my constituents probably want to see Congress move on and start solving these (other) issues.”
Showing that concern is particularly crucial for freshmen Democrats such as Davids as the party fights to retain the House majority it won in 2018. Republicans need a net gain of 18 seats to win the majority back, and President Donald Trump in 2016 won in 30 districts whose House seats are now held by Democrats. Trump narrowly lost the 3d district that year.
The “natural thing for the Republicans to do” in the swing districts is to nationalize the House races and show that support of the GOP candidate is support for Trump, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan elections newsletter based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Democrats, on the other hand, “will try to de-nationalize those races through talking about issues that aren’t directly tied to the president,” Kondik said..
Rep. Josh Harder, D-California, won his first term in 2018 with 52% of the vote, defeating Republican incumbent Jeff Denham. Rep. TJ Cox, D-California. won his first term in 2018 with 50.4% over another Republican incumbent, Rep. David Valadao.
Cox’s office has found that constituents tend to contact him about a variety of issues, with spikes occurring if something of special local interest is in the news.
“On the phones and every day I’m out in the district, my constituents contact us with personal and immediate problems,” he said.
“Some of them are having issues with a federal agency, some tell me they won’t be able to afford their insulin for next month. Helping people solve those types of problems are always in the front of my mind and they’re what we hear about the most.”
Harder had similar findings.
“The people I work for are clearly more focused on water, health care, and jobs than impeachment - and so am I,” he said.
This yen to tend to such constituents’ concerns is a point a lot of Democrats make. While virtually all support impeachment, and very much dislike Trump, they are working to show they’re problem-solvers and good listeners, not political gladiators.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for some time has routinely begun her weekly Capitol news conferences by talking not about impeachment, but other topics such as efforts to curb prescription drug costs or boost infrastructure spending. Thursday, she did just that, talking at length about the two topics before taking questions.
A Gallup Poll taken Dec. 2-15 found that 35% of adults regard health care as an extremely important 2020 campaign issue, followed closely by terrorism and national security at 34%.
Asked why she found health care was more on people’s minds than impeachment, Davids said health care is “the thing that ‘s causing not only the most stress emotionally, (but) health care is causing the most financial stress for people.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 10:03 AM.
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