PPI's Progress Report: Build on this, Democrats: How the party can capitalize on Republicans’ midterm fizzle

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Progress Report

News, events, and must-read analysis from the Progressive Policy Institute.

Build on this, Democrats: How the party can capitalize on Republicans’ midterm fizzle
By Will Marshall
President of PPI
For New York Daily News

Last week’s delightfully abnormal midterm elections left Democrats elated and Republicans wondering how they failed to parlay President Biden’s dismal approval ratings and public consternation over soaring prices into big political gains.

The answer has three overlapping parts: a deeply unpopular stance on abortion, a bad habit of indulging anti-democratic extremism, and a raft of terrible candidates — all of which Republicans inflicted upon themselves. But for Democrats and Biden, dissecting the results and capitalizing on them are two very different matters. To hear voters’ 2022 message and win over many more in 2024, the party must decisively reoccupy the center, with pragmatic solutions that speak to voters’ everyday concerns.

As it happens, most voters (31%) did say inflation was the issue
that mattered most to them. But contrary to the media’s claims that abortion was no longer a salient issue, it came in a close second (27%), followed by crime, guns and immigration. Those who chose abortion overwhelmingly backed Democratic candidates.

Forward

Save Your Spot!

The 2022 Midterms: Key Lessons and Course Corrections

Featuring Rep. Cheri Bustos

Tuesday, November 15
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)
Conference Rooms ABC
1201 15th St NW, Washington, D.C. xxxxxx

The dust hasn't settled on Tuesday's midterm elections, but discussions about the 2024 cycle have already started.

That's why on Tuesday, November 15th at 11:00 a.m., the Progressive Policy Institute is hosting a post-election event to discuss what message voters delivered in the midterm elections and its implications for party leaders as they look ahead. Please join us to hear from political leaders, campaign strategists, and policy experts on the lessons we learned and how the center-left can best position itself for the 2024 election cycle.

Panel:
Rep. Cheri Bustos (IL-17), U.S. House of Representatives
Ruy Teixeira, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Elaine Kamarck, Director of the Center for Effective Public Management, Brookings Institution

Moderated by:
Will Marshall, President, Progressive Policy Institute

RSVP NOW

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Listen Up

From Red Wave to Red Trick - Post-Election Breakdown
ft. PPI's Sarah Paden

The Neoliberal Podcast with Jeremiah Johnson

What happened Tuesday night?

PPI's National Political Director Sarah Paden joins the podcast to discuss the midterm election results and give a flash breakdown of what it means. Sarah and Jeremiah discuss Democrats overperforming, Trump's influence on the GOP and on independent voters, how redistricting and abortion influenced the election, the regional factors in Florida, the Midwest, and New York, and where politics is likely to go from here.

LISTEN HERE

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COP27: A global methane agreement can prevent climate catastrophe

By Paul Bledsoe, PPI's Strategic Advisor
and Durwood Zaelke, and Gabrielle Dreyfus

For The Hill

All the parties participating in the climate negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt this week and next would do well to remember that today’s climate emergency is about two basic concepts: time and temperature. It’s too hot, and we’ve left ourselves too little time to slow and eventually reverse the accelerating increase in temperature that humans are causing.

At this late date, cutting fossil fuel emissions by shifting to clean energy can’t cut warming fast enough to slow the self-reinforcing feedbacks that are accelerating us down the “highway to climate hell,” to borrow a phrase from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s opening speech in Egypt.

As important as decarbonization will be post-2050, it is essential to couple it with a strategy to immediately cut methane and the other short-lived super climate pollutants, as this can avoid four times more warming at mid-century than decarbonization alone can. Cutting the super climate pollutants is the only known way to take our foot off the accelerator to give us a fighting chance to slow the self-reinforcing feedbacks, avoid tipping points and keep the planet from the existential risk of “Hothouse Earth.”

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ICYMI: What does a midterm split decision mean for Democrats?
By Will Marshall
PPI's President and Founder
For The Hill

The votes are still being counted, but Democrats could yet win a split decision in the 2022 midterm elections. So much for the red tsunami giddily forecast by conservative commentators in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.

There’s little doubt Republicans will take over the House of Representatives, albeit by a much narrower margin than they expected. But control of the Senate will probably be decided in the same place and manner as it was in the 2020 elections — a high-stakes run-off election in Georgia.

On Dec. 6, Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, will face off again against his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker. It’s a strange reprise that tells us several interesting things about U.S. politics.

First, the two parties are stalemated, and little has changed in two years. Second, Georgia and a handful of familiar swing states still hold the balance of power in national politics. Third, it’s hard to argue that America isn’t making racial progress when two Black men are vying for the pivotal Senate seat in a Deep South state.

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Listen Up

RADICALLY PRAGMATIC:

Is American Technological Leadership under Attack?

The Progressive Policy Institute's Innovation Frontier Project released a comprehensive research deck on the threats facing American innovation. The authors of the deck, innovation experts Ashish Arora and Sharon Belenzon of Duke University, found the United States has lost a substantial amount of corporate research since the 1980s, with only a handful of present-day U.S.-based companies investing in research at a meaningful level.

THE NEOLIBERAL PODCAST:

The Battle for Reproductive Rights in Kansas ft. Ashley All

How did a solidly red state like Kansas end up voting against an abortion ban?
Ashley All, leader on the 'NO' campaign to ban abortion in Kansas, joins the podcast to discuss how they did it.
We discuss Kansas's unique political history, what kinds of messaging works in red areas of the country, and what this means for other fights in other states.