From Russia‘s brazen invasion of Ukraine to Democrats bucking historic trends in last month’s midterm elections, 2022 has been 12 months of political plot twists for President Joe Biden and his party.
But as Biden braces for a challenging 2023 with coming investigations and a southern border migrant surge, the self-described student of history is likely reflecting on the year that has been.
BIDEN HOSTS ZELENSKY BEFORE DEMOCRATS HAND OVER HOUSE CONTROL TO REPUBLICANS
2022 was “a super weird year,” Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin surmised. Hankin, analytics and data shop Lincoln Park Strategies’ founder and president, quipped that he may not have “been around for, like, 500 years,” but he has “never seen anything like this,” particularly regarding his party’s midterm performance.
When Biden’s average job approval rating sank to net negative 20 percentage points in July after June’s annual inflation rate high of 9.1%, Hankin recalled how 2022 “was on the trajectory for being ugly” for Democrats.
“It was just, like, ‘This is gonna be a disaster,'” he told the Washington Examiner.
Biden’s approval rating has improved to net negative 8 points as of December. Consumer price increases seem to have plateaued, with November’s annual inflation rate of 7.1%.
Hankin attributes Democrats’ political comeback to the Supreme Court overturning abortion precedent Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, contending it “definitively changed the outcome of 2022.” The Supreme Court, through Dobbs, found there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley disagreed that Biden had notched any political successes, arguing that “really, he’s failed on the economy, he’s failed on foreign relations, his standouts are pretty few and far between.” But fellow Republican strategist Cesar Conda agreed Biden’s overriding 2022 achievement was “keeping the Senate blue and limiting Republican gains in the House.” Biden is the first president since Franklin Roosevelt in 1934 not to lose a Senate seat, with Democrats only shedding nine districts in the House.
“He somehow managed to turn a ‘red wave’ into a ‘red trickle,’ despite having historically low presidential approval ratings,” Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) former chief of staff and consulting firm Navigators Global’s founding partner said.
Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, who had been mocked pre-election for his rosy midterm predictions, appeared vindicated, but conceded “even many Democrats were really surprised” and “for Biden, it was probably unexpected.” Rosenberg, the founder of think tanks the New Democrat Network and New Policy Institute, also underscored the political significance of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 Ukraine invasion, with Biden reestablishing his international reputation with his response to the war after his deadly end to the Afghanistan conflict.
“Given the stakes of the war there and that we’ve seen Putin stumble so clearly and so repeatedly has to be a little bit surprising to everybody,” he added.
For Hankin, 2022’s other “jaw-dropping” development was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) striking a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on the Inflation Reduction Act, a pared down version of Biden’s original social welfare and climate spending proposal.
“Two years ago, if you handed me the list, I would be, like, ‘Yeah, this is fantasy.’ This is never happening with only 50 seats in the Senate,” he said, joking that the Inflation Reduction Act still “needs a better name.” “I mean, like, holy crap, I did not see that coming.”
With Biden benefiting from former President Donald Trump‘s diminished political standing, former Democratic strategist Sandy Maisel amplified the Inflation Reduction Act’s $391 billion investment in domestic energy security and climate change mitigation measures, including western state drought resiliency funding, a solar tax credit extension, and electric vehicle incentives.
“But I also think his work on holding together the coalition on Ukraine, especially in light of damage Trump had done to our alliances, is remarkable,” the Colby College visiting politics instructor and one-time candidate continued of Biden, echoing Rosenberg.
Democratic advocacy organization Center for American Progress senior adviser Colin Seeberger pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act’s healthcare and “cost-cutting” provisions, such as capping insulin prices at $35 a month and out-of-pocket drug expenses at $2,000 for people insured by Medicare.
“And then finally breaking the paralysis on cracking down on gun violence in America through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” he said, naming another Biden accomplishment.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act introduced stricter background checks for gun purchasers under the age of 21, allocated money for state red flag laws, and partially closed a loophole that allowed some convicted domestic abusers to purchase firearms based on their relationship with the victim.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Jessica Floyd, president of Democratic opposition research super PAC American Bridge, cited the Respect for Marriage Act, which enshrines gay and interracial marriages into federal law to counter Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring Dobbs opinion, as the pinnacle of “an incredibly successful year.”
“This comes as no surprise after 2021 when the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law were passed,” Floyd said of the previous $1.9 trillion and $550 billion packages, respectively.
