Democratic governors say party’s mid-term strategy must focus on voters’ financial concerns – Chicago Tribune

PHOENIX — Democratic governors gathered this weekend in Arizona, seeking to turn the party’s big victories last month in New Jersey and Virginia into campaigns for next year’s midterm elections, when the majority of governor’s seats will be up for election.

Those elections helped Democrats focus on what they see as a strategy to increase their ranks in power and recover from heavy losses in 2024, when voters returned Donald Trump to the White House and gave Republicans majorities in both houses of Congress.

The project aims to make life more affordable, a message they hope will work even in some conservative-leaning states.

“We need to focus on people’s daily concerns and how difficult life is for the American people today,” said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, the incoming chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and a possible presidential candidate in 2028. “Everyone wants the economy of tomorrow, but paying the bills today is absolutely essential.”

He and other governors have said Democrats can use the message of affordability as a cudgel against Trump without making it the focus of their campaigns.

“Yes, we can judge a president, and we should judge this president,” Beshear said. “But we never judge these voters.”

Democrats weigh in on costs

The Democratic governors’ meeting comes as blue states are under fire from the Trump administration, which is wielding its power in unprecedented ways against the president’s perceived enemies.

Trump deployed the National Guard to California, Oregon and Illinois over the objections of their Democratic governors. His administration has demanded detailed voter data and threatened to cut off food aid to states that don’t provide information to support its immigration crackdown.

Heading into a primary season in which factions will fight for the future of the party, Democratic governors largely sang along the same lines this weekend. A dozen candidates and sitting governors have all said they plan to speak at length about the costs of housing, child care, utilities and groceries during Trump’s second term.

But the documents’ unified focus on affordability is giving way to real divisions within the party’s ranks over how to aggressively confront Trump, who won every presidential battleground state last year, and how to deal with the rising costs burdening Americans.

On the same day that moderate Democrats with national security credentials, Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, won gubernatorial elections, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York mayoral election. All promised to tackle affordability, but they offered very different visions on how to get there.

The affordability strategy is not without risk. Economic conditions could change, making concerns about pricing less important or less urgent.

And Democrats could set themselves up for long-term disappointment if they win in 2026 but are unable to cut costs to satisfy voters, allowing Republicans to capitalize on the same buyer’s remorse that Democrats now seek to fuel.

For Democratic incumbents seeking re-election, they can’t rest on their fight against the Trump administration, said two-term New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. They must show results.

“Assure me. But don’t forget to fight this,” said Lujan Grisham, who is barred from seeking re-election by term limits. “They want both, and finding ways to combine them and marry them, I think will be a winning set of messages.”

Affordability also becomes a focal point for Trump

After last month’s elections in New Jersey and Virginia, the White House began shifting its messaging to focus more on affordability. Trump, who has not made much domestic travel during his second term, is scheduled to visit Pennsylvania on Tuesday to highlight his efforts to reduce inflation.

The president has recently been more vocal about affordability and has cut tariffs on beef and other products that consumers say are too expensive. But Trump also said the economy was better and consumer prices were lower than those reported by the media.

“The word affordability is a Democratic scam,” he said at a Cabinet meeting last week.

He continues to blame his Democratic predecessor, former President Joe Biden, for the rise in national inflation rates that occurred this year after he returned to the White House. Overall, inflation is running at 3% annually, up from 2.3% in April when Trump implemented a sweeping series of import taxes.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the administration would aim to reduce inflation, after tackling immigration and pushing for lower interest rates.

“I expect inflation to fall sharply next year,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Governors and Democratic candidates were largely in agreement on the finding that many voters in 2024 did not feel like their party focused on their concerns or shared their anger at a system they say is failing average Americans.

“I think the reason there was a failure in the presidential election is that we forgot what real people care about,” said Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who is expected to run for a second term next year.

“We need to listen to people,” said Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Atlanta mayor and Georgia gubernatorial candidate.

Democrats think some red states could be in play

Once Spanberger takes office in January, Democrats will control 24 governor’s offices, a significant improvement from the low point of just 16 after the 2016 election, but still slightly behind Republicans’ 26 seats.

Thirty-six states will hold gubernatorial elections next year.

Among the most hotly contested contests will be swing states that have swung between support for Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024. These include Arizona, where Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is seeking a second term, and Nevada, where Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is up for re-election. Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia all have open seats that are expected to attract a wide range of candidates and big spending.

The retirement of Democratic Governor Laura Kelly in Kansas, a majority Republican state in presidential elections, gives the Republican Party the upper hand. But Democrats plan to broaden their scope by competing in states like Iowa or Ohio, where the party was once competitive but struggled during the Trump era.

Gina Hinojosa, a Texas congresswoman running for governor of the nation’s second-most populous state, is arguing to Democratic donors that investing in Texas will be crucial to her party’s hopes of winning power in Washington before the 2030 census. Her state is expected to win at least four House seats and Electoral College votes at the expense of blue states like California and Illinois.

“If we don’t turn around before the end of the decade, there will be no Democratic control of Congress or the White House,” Hinojosa said. “Because the math doesn’t work.”