Republicans are accusing Democrats of appeasing China as part of an accelerating advertising campaign to hold the White House and win seats in Congress this November.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry launched the latest salvo in this expanding offensive. After state lawmaker Kate Bolz won the Democratic nomination in Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, Fortenberry targeted his challenger with digital and radio advertising that suggested she is defending China despite mounting evidence that Beijing covered up the coronavirus outbreak and caused needless deaths and economic devastation in the United States. Senior Republican strategists expect this message to dominate the fall campaign at all levels.
Support for holding China accountable for the coronavirus cuts across party lines, and Republican consultants emphasized that the issue offers the rare, potent combination of having “immediate relevancy” to voters and being in the news every day. With President Trump and the GOP threatened by the pandemic and skyrocketing unemployment, Republican insiders are confident that focusing on China can shield the party from blame and put Democrats on the defensive.
“People are angry,” said Corry Bliss, a GOP strategist advising Fortenberry and other Republicans on the fall ballot. “Any candidate running for office that is going to defend China or say we have lessons to learn from China should be investigated for point-shaving.”
Democratic insiders acknowledged that people are frustrated with China and have an increasingly negative opinion of the country. But they argue that the Republican attacks will fall flat, whether directed against House and Senate candidates or presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The GOP hardly has clean hands when it comes to getting tough with China over the years, and Democrats are betting the public cares more about healthcare, a key issue on which Trump and the Republicans are vulnerable. Should confronting China become the bigger priority, Democrats contend voters will see the Republican strategy as an attempt to shift responsibility for Trump’s coronavirus incompetence.
“A Washington play of distraction” is how Bolz campaign spokesman Tyler Redenbaugh described the Republican Party’s China playbook. Robyn Patterson, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, “Washington Republicans have failed the American people.” She added that “it’s no surprise they are desperate to distract from their flat-footed response to this crisis.”
Trump capitalized on voter frustration with China in 2016, winning key Midwestern battlegrounds on the strength of promises to crack down on Beijing’s unfair trade practices. Since Trump assumed office, support for his trade policies and negotiations instigated with Beijing to secure more favorable trading terms have been mixed.
Blue-collar voters and grassroots conservatives are supportive. So are most farmers, despite feeling the brunt of the trade war. Suburban Democrats, business-oriented and centrist Republicans, and many independents consider themselves free traders and are opposed. But amid a pandemic that has cost more than 87,000 lives and more than 36 million jobs, Republicans across ideological factions have overwhelmingly concluded that China is a bad actor that should be confronted. A majority of independents agree.
Sensing an opportunity, Senate Republicans mired in touchy reelection campaigns are burnishing their anti-China bona fides and moving to tar Democrats as too cozy with the Chinese Communist Party. In Arizona, Republicans are accusing Democratic challenger Mark Kelly of being a Beijing sympathizer, citing paid corporate speeches he gave in China and noting that a Chinese company invested in a firm he co-founded. Kelly has led Republican Sen. Martha McSally in most polls.
The Trump campaign and America First Action, the president’s designated super PAC, added a China component to their twin campaigns against Biden weeks ago.
America First Action unveiled three new spots Friday titled “Beijing Biden” to run in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Trump campaign is highlighting complimentary statements about China the former vice president issued over the course of a decadeslong political career. Biden’s initial criticism of the president’s decision to halt flights between the U.S. and China to slow the spread of the coronavirus also has become fodder for Trump campaign attacks on the Democratic White House hopeful.
“Biden called the president’s life-saving travel restrictions on China ‘xenophobic’ and ‘fearmongering’ and objected to identifying China as the place of origin of the virus,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said. “President Trump will always hold China accountable.”
