Brack: Tough messaging ahead for S.C.’s fall campaigns

Every two years, Labor Day welcomes the traditional start of the political campaigning season. This year’s, in a simple word, will be a humdinger.

Brack

Republicans in South Carolina will do just about everything they can to scramble away from the sucky economy, high costs of gas and food, and a weird war with Iran where every day seems like Groundhog Day.

Meanwhile, Democrats will do just about everything they can to tie any Republican on the ballot into the tumbling Trump administration, its false grandeur, corruption, profligate spending, chaos, protection of the billionaire class and more.

Unfortunately, this season’s airwaves probably will be more negative than ever. And that messaging is going to trickle down. Statewide, legislative and local candidates will blow up your phones with texts and spam calls, bombard websites with nasty ads and infiltrate social media with messages your grandma wouldn’t want to see.

In anticipation of all of the pettiness and craven attempts to keep or get power, don’t be surprised if you find candidates resorting to these kinds of messages about their opponents.

The Republican fear-mongering playbook

You will hear more about communists and socialists from Republicans about Democrats than you have since the McCarthyism of the 1950s. Republicans will incessantly push talking points that Democrats now are nothing but supporters of the worst kind of left-wing socialists. They’ll try to tie blue candidates to former President Barack Obama, Rosie O’Donnell, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom and anybody who hasn’t spewed unfettered fealty to President Donald Trump.

You might realize how much individual Republican candidates believe they are in trouble by the amount of negative campaigning they do. The more you hear about how Democrats support welfare queens, DEI, the LGBTQ+ agenda and other worn liberal criticisms, the more you will know how scared they really are.

As one wag told us, they can’t talk about their buddy Trump because the economy is terrible, the war is unpopular, gas prices are way too high, tariffs are hurting jobs and the price of food has gone way up, not down as Trump promised.

So when you encounter a Republican eaten up with fearmongering, ask this question: “What are you going to do for my family?”

The Democratic victim playbook

Democrats, on the other hand, will spend a whole bunch of their time trying to tie Trump to every Republican on the ballot. If you’re a Republican dogcatcher, Dems will try to figure out a way to argue that the way you pick up dogs is like building a big, beautiful ballroom – wasteful and corrupt.

They’ll showcase how Trump is making billions by gaming the system in his favor. They’ll talk about how he ignores the U.S. Constitution, freedom and the rule of law. They’ll wax on about how he slashed taxes for his fellow billionaires or how he and his party want to cut Social Security and Medicare (the Democratic fear mantra). They’ll highlight how the GOP’s intransigence and do-nothing attitude in Congress has led to high gas prices and expensive groceries.

They’ll run ads to get voters to ask Republicans in the race whether they support the ballroom or the war or cutting drug research or cutting down national forests. They’ll prod the GOP on corruption in Washington and at home, asking questions like, “Are you better off in South Carolina after more than two decades of Republican control?”

So here is what’s ahead in a snapshot: As Republicans try to run from Trump’s abysmal record and conceit by smearing Democrats with accusations of socialism, Democrats will do their damnedest to make Republicans defend Trump to get independent voters to lean their way.

In heavily gerrymandered South Carolina, a lot of this won’t matter in some areas. But statewide, it might drive turnout and upset a few political applecarts.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.