How final pitches from Democrats and Republicans are resonating with midterm voters

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Democrats and Republicans are hitting home key messages in the final push before Election Day. The economy, crime and abortion are major issues for voters. And President Biden continues to warn of threats facing democracy, something top of mind for Democratic voters in particular.

  To weigh in on how the political messaging is resonating with voters. I'm joined by longtime Republican strategist and former Republican National Committee Communications Director Doug Heye, and Joel Benenson, a Democratic strategist who worked on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns.

  And we welcome both of you back to the "NewsHour." Thank you for being here.

  Doug Heye, I'm going to start with you.

  Let's look first at the issue President Biden raised last night in his speech before a Democratic audience. He spoke about the number of election deniers who are running for office this year. He said what they are doing is un-American, it presents chaos in this country in the future. It doesn't get much more serious than that. And yet it's not an issue resonating with Republicans. Why not?

• Doug Heye, Republican Strategist:

  Well, it is a serious issue.

  I know you're going to talk to Robert Draper, who wrote "Weapons of Mass Delusion," about some of the things he's written on that. And a lot of the substance that Biden brought up, I think, can resonate with some voters, but it's not a top-tier issue for them.

  And so voters will tell you, what they care about, what their top concerns are. They're not shy with that. And, overwhelmingly, you — we see that it's the economy and specifically inflation.

  And so what Biden essentially did last night, regardless of the substance — and I actually thought he delivered the speech fairly well — is he basically said to voters, here's what should be important to you, when voters are saying, actually, what's important to us is inflation and getting that under control.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And to you, Joel Benenson, what is your sense of why this issue — yes, it may be motivating Democrats, but it isn't — apparently isn't with people in the middle, and not Republicans?

• Joel Benenson, Democratic Strategist:

  Well, look, I think that elections are always about people's values and their lives.

  And I think that's what Democrats have to do. I think we know that inflation is high. We also know that corporate profits are up higher than they have been in a decade. Hiring has been high. We hear a lot about supply chain shortages. Some of those numbers don't jibe when you think about it from the economic perspective.

  But, that being said, I think that, when you look at fundamental differences, I think what Democrats have to do is draw a contrast between the values in the people they stand up for. I would lean in on cutting taxes for the middle class and working Americans. A poll we just did shows that there is enormous support for that across Democrats, independents and Republicans, and for cutting taxes for small businesses.

  However, the contrast with Republicans we should be drawing is that they are the only ones who want to give more tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthy. And those numbers are abominable, even among Republicans. Only 34 percent of Republicans think — agree with that Republican position.

  And, of course, the numbers are lower with Democrats and independents, with barely 20 percent of those groups agreeing with that. So, in these economic times, I think we want to play to our strengths on who we're fighting for when we engage in tax policy and who Republicans are fighting for.

• Judy Woodruff:

  But, Doug Heye, is that what we're hearing from Democrats on the campaign trail?

• Doug Heye:

  It's not, and it's startling.

  And I live on Capitol Hill, talk to a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill. They were a bit mystified that this is what Biden decided to have, essentially, as the closing message, that the last thing, essentially — obviously, he will be on the campaign trail a little bit — the last big national thing that you hear from the president is not on the number one topic that drives American lives every day.

  You go to the grocery store, and something is more expensive than it was the last time. If you put gas in your car, it's much more expensive than it was certainly a year ago. It's down a little bit, but not compared to a year ago.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• Doug Heye:

  And you see it on every — on something every day in your life.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, Joel Benenson, you just talked about — mentioned tax cuts, doing something about taxes. But what about the immediate issue of inflation? Are Democrats saying — are they making an adequate argument about what people are dealing with in their daily lives?

• Joel Benenson:

  Well, I think we could make a stronger argument, as I just said.

  If you look at all the economic indicators, businesses and corporations are not hurting. And I think the people in America, and particularly working and middle-class people, are. We have profits up. They are having extraordinarily good years. And I'm a businessperson. I'm not anti-business here.

  But we need to draw a contrast here that the people who need breaks right now to cope with inflation aren't the people who are — I call it pernicious capitalists right now, by taking advantage of all the dialogue about supply chain shortages, yet they're hiring more workers. They're raising their prices and they're profiting more.

  How does that make sense when they don't have the supplies they need to make their goods? Clearly, they have enough so that they can drive up their profits by doing those things.

• Judy Woodruff:

  I hear what you're…

• Joel Benenson:

  And I think…

  (CROSSTALK)

• Joel Benenson:

  … lean on that and engage in that argument with them and make them play defense on these positions.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And I hear what you're saying. But, again, there are only four days left or so, five days until the election. And we're not hearing that as an argument.

• Joel Benenson:

  No.

• Doug Heye:

  And, Judy, you and I went to rival colleges. And so when I watched the North Carolina-Duke football game, we will talk about the result.

  What I saw was Ted Budd talking about the economy and inflation and the issue of crime. Cheri Beasley was running ads exclusively — there's nothing but political ads during that game. Cheri Beasley was talking about abortion, certainly something that she feels can drive some Democratic votes out, but you're not talking about the number one issue that voters are talking about today.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So, again, Joel Benenson…

• Joel Benenson:

  Can I jump in, Judy?

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• Joel Benenson:

  I would take issue with that.

  I think, if you ignore what happened in Kansas, where voters rejected restrictions on abortion in a turnout that was presidential level, 60 percent of the voters were Republican. In the poll we just did, overwhelmingly, voters say that protecting a woman's right to choose is one of their top priorities. It is much higher among Democrats and independents at 92 percent — 82 percent among Democrats, 46 percent among independents, but it is even 43 percent among Republicans.

  And we ought to be drawing that contrast. That hits home with people. It hits them where their values are.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, again, I hear you saying what Democrats ought to be doing. But — and let's talk about what they are doing.

  And what Republicans are doing, among other things, Doug Heye, is spending a lot of money on talking — in talking about crime…

• Doug Heye:

  Yes.

• Judy Woodruff:

  … and saying Democrats are soft on crime, that people won't be safe if they elect a Democrat.

  Is that a — I mean, is that an argument, do you think, that's in proportion to reality in this country?

• Doug Heye:

  Look, I'm a little biased on this, because I was mugged last year walking to the grocery store at 8:45 p.m. So I take the issue a little more personally than a lot of people do.

  But it's something that you hear people talking about all the time. And it's whether they have experienced it themselves, or whether they seen something on TV about an uptick in carjackings, and things like that aren't the targeted gang shootings or things like that, or even if you just go to your drugstore, and you have to push a button now for somebody to unlock the shampoo or the shaving cream or whatever it may be.

  You're not a victim of crime at that point, but you recognize that you're having to do that because shoplifting is up. And you see videos of a storm of 10 or 12 people just shoplifting an entire drugstore one point, and you're worried about that.

• Judy Woodruff:

  In just 30 seconds, Joel Benenson, what can Democrats say to counter this argument coming from Republicans?

• Joel Benenson:

  Well, I think one of the things we should counter is draw the contrast on their positions on the Second Amendment and gun control, and reasonable gun control.

  Just as Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion in the Heller decision, and he closed his opinion by saying, as with all amendments to the Constitution, the Second Amendment does not come without limitations. We ought to quote Scalia, a hero to every conservative and Republican who have ever watched the court. And we ought to make that point and say, no, we're not going to take people's guns away, but we're going to have commonsense laws, just as Scalia said.

  There is not an unlimited right to carry guns anywhere. And we have done research on this with voters across the spectrum and gun households and gun owners. And they believe there should be limitations in places where guns have no business, schools, movie theaters, shopping malls, public parks.

  I think we can draw contrasts on issues that are on people's minds, particularly with crime rates up in many places, and do a better job of it. And we have very little time here. I think Doug and I would agree we know that you want to be closing strong at the end. But you got to build up the momentum for that starting at about Labor Day.

• Judy Woodruff:

  That's right.

• Joel Benenson:

  And I think that is the challenge for Democrats.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And we have four days left, and even some, I'm sure, campaigning and advertising on Election Day.

  We will continue to watch it. I know you two will, Joel Benenson, Doug Heye. Thank you both.

• Doug Heye:

  Thank you.

• Joel Benenson:

  Thank you.

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