Growing tensions in Syria and the prospect of an historic breakthrough with North Korea almost don’t exist at all on the campaign trail, where candidates and the various groups working for or against them are instead focusing on traditional pocketbook issues.
And while Democrats might be expected to highlight these issues as potential failures of the Trump administration, the opposition party has instead pushed mostly on economics.
“There are lots of issues. First and foremost, I think people are very focused on pocketbook issues,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “But people need to feel the country’s position in the world is in stable hands, so clearly to the extent that there’s more instability, that can be part of an election decision. But again … I still see pocketbook issues being front and center.”
“[Y]ou’ll find that most of our senators when they’re back home in their states, they are talking directly to the pocketbook issues. The kind of issues that their constituents are grappling with every day,” Van Hollen said, adding that incumbent Democrats are going “the extra mile” to hammer those points home.
Some of the radio silence on the Democratic side is related to the fact that many Democrats supported Trump’s decision to strike the Syrian government after evidence surfaced that Syria used chemical weapons against its own people. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and many others came out in favor of the president’s strikes on Syria.
Similarly, several Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had no issue with CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s meeting with Kim Jong Un on Easter, and see it as a possible breakthrough after decades of getting nowhere.
In each case, there doesn’t seem to be enough of a crisis, or enough opposition, for Democrats to raise it on the campaign trail.
“[Foreign policy] plays a significant role when there’s a perception that there’s a existential threat or an existential problem or dilemma,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member on the Senate Armed Forces Committee. “That hasn’t been prominent enough for people to say, ‘That’s what I’m worried about.'”
Republicans have also largely shied away from talking about foreign policy and have tried to focus on the tax reform package and the economy.
A rare exception cropped up last week when the Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC supported by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., released a digital ad targeting Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., for claiming in 2013 the U.S. should trust the Russians in Syria. The group called Heitkamp’s statement’s not just wrong, but “dead wrong,” as pictures of dead Syrian children appeared.
Senate Republicans are also banking on the theory that pocketbook issues will be the major factor, but believe if it comes down to a debate on foreign policy, Trump is in a solid position.
“The things the president’s done, the response to the chemical attacks, the fact that he would at least send somebody to have a discussion with North Korea, in the election the Democrats should hope it’s not on foreign policy because I think he’s going to score fairly well on them,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., co-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
According to Gallup, 20 percent of Americans believe economic issues are of the utmost importance compared to only 7 percent for national security or international issues.
As Tillis noted, foreign policy played a role in the 2014 contests due to the rise of ISIS and their beheadings of James Foley and Steven Sotloff, two American journalists. However, unless U.S. troops are deployed in the next six months, foreign policy topics are unlikely to gain much traction with the voting electorate.
“If something of a scale that required a deployment, then obviously it becomes a discussion,” Tillis said. “I just don’t see that happening between now and November.”
