Cost of living, Iran war sidelined as GOP puts public safety front and center

Republican ads accuse Democrats of wanting to defund the police

Violent crime at low levels even as 'law and order' message dominates

Democrats counter with candidates from law enforcement backgrounds

President Donald Trump leaves the stage after delivering a campaign rally speech in San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday (local time). [Reuters]
President Donald Trump leaves the stage after delivering a campaign rally speech in San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday (local time). [Reuters]

With the US midterm elections a month away, Republicans have thrust "the war on crime" back to the center of their campaign. As voter frustration mounts over the cost of living and the war with Iran, the party is leaning hard into public safety and illegal immigration, betting that a classic "law and order" message can carry them through.

Republican campaign ads claiming that Democrats want to cut police funding have been appearing across key battleground states, the AP reported Tuesday (local time). Police unions and law enforcement officials have also taken prominent roles at Republican campaign events.

The AP analyzed that Republicans are zeroing in on crime because, with economic and war issues dominating the midterm agenda, public safety is a terrain where they see a clearer opening for attack.

Republicans are particularly pressing the case that Democrats were sympathetic to the "Defund the Police" movement. The strategy ties crime, illegal immigration and border security into a single frame, driving home the message that Democrats have failed to keep Americans safe.

Yet even as Republicans elevate public safety as a central campaign issue, violent crime in the United States has remained at low levels. The battle is less about an actual rise in crime than about voters' sense of insecurity and a political assault on Democrats' past policing policies.

President Donald Trump has personally amplified the crime issue on the trail.

At a recent rally in North Carolina, Trump displayed mugshots of criminals on a large screen to attack Democratic policing policy. The AP said the tactic recalled the "Willie Horton" ad Republicans used in the 1988 presidential election to attack Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis. That ad featured Willie Horton, a Black inmate who committed a violent crime while on a weekend furlough, to portray Dukakis as dangerously soft on crime.

Even within the Republican Party, there are differences over how hard to push the crime message.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who represents North Carolina, signaled caution about stoking excessive fear, saying he had no concerns about walking the streets of Charlotte at night.

Democrats are also adjusting their defensive strategy against the Republican "law and order" offensive. Rather than emphasizing police reform or budget cuts as they once did, the party is now fielding candidates with backgrounds in law enforcement — police officers and prosecutors — to signal that they will not cede the public safety debate to Republicans.

As a result, crime and public safety are expected to emerge as major issues in the final stretch of the midterms alongside inflation and the war. With Republicans trying to shift the election's focus away from the economy and onto crime, and Democrats working to deflect the charge that they are soft on policing, the two parties' battle over public safety is intensifying.


sjy@heraldcorp.com