At a weekend fund-raising retreat, a group of governors worried about voters’ frustrations with Democrats. They hoped President Biden’s State of the Union speech would be a pivot point.
President Biden with Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, center, and Michael Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, last June.
MANALAPAN, Fla. — Democratic governors and their allies are expressing deep anxiety about the political conditions facing their party as President Biden’s approval rating slumps in a year when three dozen governorships are on the line, including in some of the nation’s most important battleground states.
At a weekend fund-raising retreat in South Florida, several governors, candidates for governor and donors acknowledged that voters’ frustration with the lingering pandemic was damaging the party more than expected. They hoped that Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address might serve as a pivot point, coming at the convergence of three major events that could reorder the existing political landscape: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Biden’s first Supreme Court nomination and the loosening of many coronavirus restrictions.
“The environment is not where we want it to be right now,” said Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, which organized the event. “But I believe it’s going to get substantially better.”
Democrats are defending 16 governorships in November, including in crucial presidential battleground states: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, plus Maine, Nevada and Minnesota.
Those battleground races have taken on outsized importance after Donald J. Trump and many in the Republican Party showed an unwillingness to accept electoral defeat in 2020. In Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, incumbent Democratic governors vetoed legislation that would have made it harder to vote and, in some cases, could have made it easier for politicians to overturn the results of an election.
Republicans also see an opportunity to pick up a seat in Kansas, a conservative state where Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, is seeking re-election.
In informal poolside chats and closed-door political strategy sessions, attendees considered what could be done to change the trajectory of the president’s standing and the Democratic brand. A Washington Post-ABC News Poll on Sunday showed Mr. Biden with a 37 percent overall approval rating, a new low, and a 30 percent support among independents.
“When you’re frustrated and angry, you blame the guy at the top,” Mr. Cooper said.
On the retreat’s sidelines, several officials expressed frustration with the White House’s political operation, when granted anonymity to speak candidly. In interviews, state-level Democrats made clear that they want less debate over stalled legislation in Washington and more ribbon-cuttings and other events highlighting the economic and infrastructure packages already signed into law.
“All they hear from Washington is process,” Mr. Cooper said of voters.
“We’ve undersold historic investment in our country,” said Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey.
Mr. Murphy, who survived re-election last fall by a far narrower-than-expected margin, was especially in demand for his firsthand assessment of just how tough it is to be a Democrat out there, right now.
ImageGov. Phil Murphy, left, at a White House meeting in July.Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York Times
Mr. Murphy won by 3.2 percentage points in a state that Mr. Biden carried a year earlier by nearly 16 percentage points. That same day, Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, won the Virginia governorship; Mr. Biden won Virginia by 10 points in 2020.
“I just got re-elected in the teeth of —” Mr. Murphy said, cutting himself off before noting that people are just “mad as hell,” chiefly because the pandemic has dragged on for two years. “They’re not necessarily sure why they’re mad or who they’re mad at, but they’re mad and they’re frustrated.”
Mr. Murphy, who led the February charge among big-state Democratic governors to lift school masking mandates ahead of the White House, offered a warning: “Don’t underestimate how upset people are right now. Don’t underestimate the anxiety, the fatigue,” he said.
The White House announced it is lifting its mask mandate for vaccinated staff as of Tuesday — the day of the State of the Union — and the Capitol’s attending physician did the same in recent days.
Republicans scoffed that it was cratering polling, not science, causing the sudden Democratic policy shift. (Many Republican governors ignored expert advice on masking last year when it came to the pandemic.)
“The sluggish return to normalcy following the pandemic is a major factor in voter satisfaction with a lot the Democratic incumbents,” said Jesse Hunt, the communications director for the Republican Governors Association.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida, who is on the ballot this year and is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, welcomed the Democratic governors’ gathering in his state by selling “Lockdown Libs Tour” T-shirts.
“Lockdown Democrats can’t get enough of Florida’s freedom!” read a fund-raising email.
Democratic candidates for governor from Florida, Iowa, South Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania all attended the retreat, as did the governors of Maine, New York, Kentucky, and Rhode Island. Stacey Abrams, who is making her second bid for governor of Georgia, came too, and she spoke at the nearby home of a donor who hosted a reception, according to attendees.
There are 20 states with sitting Republican governors on the ballot this fall and Democrats from those places said they hope the public anger at those in charge can cut both ways.
Despite the national climate, the map does offer Democrats two strong pickup chances, in Maryland and Massachusetts, where popular anti-Trump Republican governors are no longer on the ballot in heavily Democratic states.
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland couldn’t run for re-election under term limits and Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts opted against seeking another term as pro-Trump forces threatened a primary.
Republican infighting is also creating instability for the party in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp is facing a fierce primary challenge from David Perdue, a former senator, and in Arizona, where Mr. Trump has feuded with the outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey.
Josh Wachs, a Democratic donor who attended the event, said the Democratic Party faced headwinds, but took solace in the raging Republican primaries. If Republicans nominate candidates who are far out of the mainstream, “that’s going to change the dynamics in a significant way.”
Mr. Hunt dismissed talk of Republican division “at a time when no one trusts the Democrat brand.”
“If you’re a governor right now, or invested in Democratic governors’ successes, you don’t have much else to talk about,” he said, “so you grasp at straws.”
Source: nytimes.com
