ICYMI: Democrats field test how to make Rick Scott’s agenda backfire on GOP [NBC News]

Read the DSCC’s full polling memo on Senate Republicans’ agenda HERE

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

NBC News: Democrats field test how to make Rick Scott’s agenda backfire on GOP
By Marc Caputo
April 14, 2022

Key Points:

• That proposal from the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee appears to be helping Democrats, or at least that’s what recent messaging testing found, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee recently field-tested Scott’s plan with swing state voters and found strong aversion to the tax increase language as well as the idea of sunsetting all federally funded programs in five years, which would mean ending Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

• When voters were asked about ending Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, Scott’s plan proved to be the most potent of messages, according to the survey conducted by Blue Rose Research, a Democratic messaging and research firm. The field test showed that 65 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to support the GOP.

• “This message drives the largest drop in Republican vote share among voters over 65+, Latino voters, and white voters without a college degree,” according to Blue Rose Research, which interviewed 2,777 voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin via online web panels March 25-30.

• The figures also showed voters were more likely to support a candidate who was “standing up against Senate Republicans’ new plan that would raise taxes on working families. Republicans’ plan would raise taxes on over half of all Americans — especially on seniors, families with children.”

• As for candidates who supported that tax portion of Scott’s plan, the survey showed 60 percent of voters said it made them less likely to back those Republicans.

• The survey also isolated the opinion of self-described Trump voters and found that, by 46-34 percent, they would be less likely to support candidates who favored cutting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. As for imposing an income tax on poorer Americans, 41 percent of Trump voters said they’d be less likely to back Republicans in 2022.

• When asked about ending the Affordable Care Act — and therefore allowing insurance companies to charge more money for health care and end “protections for pre-existing conditions” — most voters were also opposed, with 55 percent against the idea.

• Ending the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was a particularly salient issue for younger voters.

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