In critical race, Michigan candidates downplay party affiliation • Michigan Advance

With polls indicating the 2024 election will be a blow, not just for at the White Housebut in many others key races in Michigan, candidates are looking to avoid any disadvantage that could turn off independent voters.

One of these disadvantages can be the direct identification of the party to which they belong.

That’s not an issue in the presidential race, where both the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, are each strongly identified as leaders of their respective parties. But for candidates in very close congressional races, partisan affiliation may be something to avoid or downplay.

“Some of these states and districts are very close. They could go their own way anyway. If I’m a Democrat, maybe Republicans who might be open to at least doing some research on me, if they just see my sign, start to discount me. Maybe that’s something they want to avoid”, J. Miles Coleman of the University of Virginia Policy Center told the Michigan Advance.

Examples of this party’s avoidance abound in Michigan, starting with the hotly contested U.S. Senate race between U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake).

Both candidates have numerous yard signs and digital ads in which the words “Democratic” or “Republican” are not present.

The same is true of the hotly contested congressional midterm races in Michigan.

In District 7, former state Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-Lansing) faces former state Sen. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) for the vacant seat, with Slotkin eyeing the Senate. Both candidates have signs without party references A Hertel digital ad it has him criticizing Democrats on immigration without mentioning that he’s a Democrat.

“I’m working with Democrats and Republicans to make this happen. And when the Democrats softened at the border, I called them out,” Hertel said in the ad, portraying himself as a “regular guy.”

A Barrett TV commercial on heavy rotation highlights that he’s “not a millionaire” and makes clear his status as a veteran Army helicopter pilot, but nowhere does he say he’s a Republican.

Meanwhile, Democrat State Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet and former Trump administration appointee Paul Junge are running for the 8th District seat and both have ads that do not list their party affiliation.

McDonald’s Rivet adwho gained notoriety for apparently showing her husband to jump out of a car instead of listening to his wife talk about tax cuts, doesn’t say she’s a Democrat.

While Junge’s ads don’t specifically say he’s a Republican, two of them released before the August primary, in which he faced multiple contenders for the GOP nomination, feature Donald Trump and label Junge as “trump card Conservative.”

Coleman says that’s what he’s seen in other races around the country.

“I’ve noticed that on the Republican side, some of the Republicans in key races, instead of putting ‘Republican’ on their side, they’ll say ‘endorsed Trump.’ “A lot of them tend to prefer the term ‘conservative’ over ‘Republican,’ because in a state like Michigan, you might have some Democrats who are more open to a conservative than a Republican,” Coleman said. “I think in a district like the 8th or even the 7th, you might have some working-class Democrats who would agree with conservatives on something, but who would be less open to a Republican appointee.”

A Junge announcement released after he won the nomination attacks McDonald Rivet, but again does not mention the party affiliation of either candidate.

Lansing PR consultant Andrea Bitely told the Advance that another factor in this trend is data overload.

“I think one thing it comes down to is people’s attention spans. Maybe they can get through 30 seconds of advertising, but they can’t get through much more than what they’re already listening to,” said Bitely, owner of Bitely Communications, who served as a spokesman for former Attorney General Bill Schuette. “Also, it’s not necessarily about winning more votes by identifying with their political party. And at the top of the ticket, everyone is so aligned and aligned with their party affiliation that it’s almost pointless to include it.”

Bitely says it offers no positive benefit to many candidates running in tossup districts.

“It could be counterproductive if you’re running on a really purple chair. Although the reality right now, if you look at the Barrett-Hertel race, each of these candidates will get a swing from the top of the ticket and they want to be associated with them. So I think a lot of it comes down to the inability of the American public to focus on anything for more than 5 to 10 seconds,” she said.

One factor that may drive this trend away from party identification is the shift in partisan balance. For many years, Democrats enjoyed a voter-share advantage, peaking at about 55% in 2008. Since then, it has narrowed to an essential balance between the two parties. according to Pew Research.

“Partisan identification of registered voters is now evenly split between the two major parties: 49% of registered voters are Democrats or lean Democratic, and a nearly identical share — 48% — are Republicans or lean Republican” . the organization said.

Even more to the point are the voters who will categorically not vote for someone from the opposite party.

Did a Michigan congressional candidate’s husband jump out of a moving car in her ad?

“There are definitely those people out there,” Bitely said. “A pretty good section on both sides of the aisle, it doesn’t matter if the Democrat is my neighbor and I’ve known him for 30 years. He is still a Democrat. I don’t vote for him and vice versa. The Republican on the other side is running, but he’s a Republican. I’m not voting for him or her.”

However, Bitely says the vast majority of voters are well aware of which party certain candidates belong to, so this trend really appeals to those who aren’t tuned into politics and elections until a ballot arrives in their mail or voting begins in person. .

“The base knows its candidates. They know who they are voting for. They are not the ones you are trying to push in any direction. The people you push in any direction are the low-propensity, unlikely to vote in every election,” she said. “Right now we’re looking at people who vote every four years and only if it’s a candidate they like. We’re just trying to get into those people’s heads that they recognize your name.”