According to former President Bill Clinton, Republicans have a simple campaign formula to achieve electoral victory: voter misery.
While stumping for congressional hopeful Josh Riley, Clinton said the GOP is banking on anguish to fuel their political victories and surmised that Republicans intentionally strive toward making conditions worse for Americans so they can blame Democrats.
“The Republicans are pretty simple actually, and pretty straightforward,” Clinton ribbed, drawing laughter from the crowd. “They say, ‘I want you to be very miserable, and I want you to be very angry. And I want you to vote for us, and we’ll make it worse, but we’ll blame them.’”
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“The Republicans are pretty simple … They say, ’I want you to be very miserable, and … very angry. And I want you to vote for us, and we’ll make it worse, but we’ll blame them.’”
— Former President Bill Clinton while campaigning for NY House candidate Josh Riley (D) pic.twitter.com/KmMuIrZjEA
— The Recount (@therecount) November 2, 2022
Throughout the midterm election cycle, Republicans have chastised Democrats for economic misery afflicting millions of voters as inflation rises. They have also placed a significant focus on crime, which is in step with polling of top voter priorities.
Riley is locked in a tight race for New York’s 19th Congressional District with Republican Marc Molinaro, who lost a special election race for that seat against Pat Ryan over the summer amid backlash over the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Sparse polling has indicated a tight race between the pair. The Cook Political Report deems the race a toss-up.
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In addition to stumping for Riley, Clinton is also set to hit the campaign trail for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday, per the Washington Post. Hochul is facing off against Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), who has gained ground against her in some polling. He is currently trailing her by 4.8 percentage points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
Clinton’s wife, Hillary, suggested during an MSNBC interview Tuesday evening that voters “don’t really” understand the stakes of this year’s election.
